EXTRACT OF A STATEMENT BY THE TIBETAN

I am a brother of yours, who has traveled a little longer upon the Path than has the average student, and has therefore incurred greater responsibilities.  I am one who has wrestled and fought his way into a greater measure of light than has the aspirant who will read this, and I must therefore act as a transmitter of the light.  My work is to teach and spread the knowledge of the Ageless Wisdom wherever I can find a response, and I also seek to help the Masters M. and the Master K.H. whenever opportunity offers.    

If a teaching can bring forth a response from the illumined mind,

a flashing forth of the intuition, then let that teaching be accepted, but not otherwise.

INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR

This abridgment is dedicated to the Tibetan and Alice A. Bailey,

and to all engaged with the work of uplifting the consciousness of humanity.

The work accomplished by Alice A. Bailey and the Tibetan, since revealed as the Master of Wisdom known by the name of Djwhal Khul, can hardly be given too much praise for in the Blue Books they succeeded in delivering a great deal of the Ageless Wisdom to the world.  Their seven core books, each masterfully presented with the clarity and order of a textbook, represent the essential current of Truth that runs through the sciences, religions and philosophies of Man, and unites them all under cosmic law.  Within their body of work are found the laws and processes that underlie the love of the Christ and the wisdom of the Buddha.  Herein are found answers to the true nature of God, the Cosmos, Spiritual and Solar Fire, the not-self and the true Self.

I demonstrate my gratitude for their service by attempting to apply the essential teachings in my life, and this abridgment is just such an attempt.  I am confident that the work was overseen not only by my Higher Self, but by both DK and AAB, for I felt their presences throughout the process.  The sutratma that they created between themselves and their body of work is strong and alive with vibrancy, and it was their discrimination that I relied upon when selecting text for inclusion.  Yet, the karma for errors and omissions between the Treatise and this humble abridgment, must necessarily rest upon my shoulders.  I freely offer this abridgment to the world in the spirit of love and intelligent service, and I believe it will, as a thought-form rightfully conceived and constructed, succeed in its purpose.

The purpose of this abridgment is threefold:

1.  To coalesce a condensed form of the Ageless Wisdom, and this for three reasons:

1. To assimilate the data and develop an efficient method of studying the essential teachings.
2. To circulate, teach and learn the Ageless Wisdom with friends and family.  To create a study guide and teaching aid.
3. To transmit the essential teachings to those Seekers who may not take the time to read the full Treatise, with the goal of transmitting 70% of the essential teachings with only 30% of the study.

2. To promote awareness of the Ageless Wisdom within studious occult circles, such as the Hermetic Qabalists, Christian Mystics, Ceremonial Magicians and Astrologers.  Some within these groups suffer heavily under dogma and misunderstood tradition, and will benefit greatly by the study of Cosmic Law.

3. To quantify, demystify and promote awareness of the Ageless Wisdom in the global population. This has in mind the following four aspects:

1. General psychology and self-improvement:  Through a greater perspective of one’s microcosmic self, as well as Man’s position within the planetary scheme, individuals will be able to respond to life’s challenges with greater mobility and intelligence.

2. Unification of science, religion and philosophy:  Through an understanding of the Law of Analogy, the scientist who studies the Ageless Wisdom stands to gain much when he considers the living atom of matter.  The orthodox Christian may find illumination as to the nature of God, the Father and the Son, while philosophers will discover the occult reason behind that warmth, which is felt as individual, brotherly and group love; all will benefit through knowledge of the concrete processes and abstract interactions that occur in, and actually create of their own essence, the seen and unseen worlds around us.

3. Harmlessness, through right thought and speech:  Through a proper comprehension of the power of thought-forms, individuals will come to control the lower impulses, to seek harmlessness in all that they do, and to eventually radiate only the true essence of their Egoic Ray.

4. Intelligent individual and group activity:  Societal reforms based on the Ageless Wisdom will promote enhanced unity within the human collective, and the intelligent organization and activity that will result is the natural flow of evolution, for the Divine Plan works toward the greatest good of all.

In Unity, Love and Light,

Patrick Westfall    

PART ONE

THE FOURTEEN RULES FOR GROUP INITIATION

PRELIMINARY REMARKS

It might be here of value, my brothers, if I again laid emphasis upon the fact that the formless world is only entered when the aspirant has acquired somewhat the capacity to center himself on the abstract levels of the mental plane. This involves necessarily certain developments within the aspirant's own nature. The demanded contact would otherwise be impossible. What is needed is self-exertion, the resultant developments of which might be touched upon as follows:

1. The Repolarisation of the Entire Lower Man so that his attitude toward the aggregate of forms which make up his field of general contact has changed. He is no longer deluded by the things of the senses but has in his hand that thread or clue which will eventually guide him out of the maze of the lower life perceptions into the field of clear knowledge and the realm where daylight is found; he will then no longer need to walk in the dark. This repolarisation is brought about in four ways, each of which provides the next step forward, and in their totality (and when definitely followed) will eventuate in the total subjugation of the personality. These four ways are:

1. A constant and unfailing attempt to center the consciousness within the head. From this central position the real man, the directing agency will direct and guide all his members, imposing upon the "lunar lords" of the physical body a new rhythm and habit of response. Two factors are of value and helpful in the production of the necessary polarisation:

1. The reiterated appreciation of the words "I am the Self, the Self am I."
2. The habit of early morning meditation wherein the Thinker centers himself in the point of control and starts upon his day's experience and contacts with the realisation that he is only the Observer, the Perceiver and Actor.

2. A close consideration throughout the day as to the use and misuse of energy. Every man should realise that in the use of energy lies direction and the treading of the Path. It produces eventually truthful manifestation and the displaying of one's light in order that circumstances may be irradiated and fellow pilgrims helped. Students should familiarise themselves with the "energy concept" and learn to regard themselves as energy units displaying certain types of energy. In this connection it should be borne in mind that when spiritual energy and material energy (the two opposite poles) are brought into relationship, a third type of energy is produced, and the work of the fourth or human kingdom is to demonstrate this peculiar type. It might serve to clarify thought if students remembered that:

1. Superhuman entities display spiritual energy.
2. Subhuman entities display the energy of matter.
3. Human entities display soul energy.

In the perfect manifestation of these three will the plan of creation be consummated. It should also be borne in mind that these three are nevertheless a manifestation of duality—spirit and matter—and that this is the manifestation of a great Existence and of His appearing. Therefore, what are called the "three gunas" in Hindu philosophy are but the qualities He manifests through these types of entities.

Superhuman lives express sattva, the guna of rhythm and of harmonious response to divine urge, of perfect display of coordinated cooperation with the purpose of manifestation.

Human lives demonstrate the quality of rajas, of mobility, of constant and conscious change in order to ascertain what is the Real and through the medium of experience demonstrate the true nature of rhythmic response.

Subhuman lives express the guna of tamas or of inertia. They work blindly and have no ability to respond consciously to the plan. They are the sumtotal of the "units of inertia" just as the human units are called "the points of light moving within the square." This may have its appeal to Masons.

This subject of the use or misuse of energy is capable of infinite expansion, and in my other books where I give you more upon the centres I have enlarged upon it. I but seek at this time to give you that which can be of immediate use to students and thus lay the foundation for later work.

3. A close study of the needed transmutation of astral and emotional energy into love, the energy of love. This involves the sublimation of personal feeling into group realisation or consciousness, and when carried out successfully produces in time the construction of a higher and subtler body, the buddhic sheath. When this sheath is thus materialised a very high stage of advancement is marked, but the earlier stages can be intelligently approached by any earnest student and probationer. To transmute emotion into love the following realisations will be found necessary:

1. A realisation that all moods, all display of sorrow, of pain, or of happy excitement are due to  our  identification with the objects of desire, with the form aspect, and with that which is material.

2. An understanding of the emotional or astral body and the place it plays in the student's development. It should be recognised as the shadow of the monad, and a connection should be traced between

The Astral Sheath - 6th Plane

The Buddhic Sheath - 4th Plane

The Monadic Sheath - 2nd Plane

and the place the love petals in the egoic lotus play should also be carefully considered.

3. A comprehension of the potency of the astral sheath owing to its undivided nature.

4. A study of the purpose of the solar plexus, and the part it plays as an organ of transference of energy from the three great centres below the diaphragm to the three higher centres. There is a very close analogy here to the solar lotus, the egoic body, occupying a midway point between the threefold Monad and the threefold lower man. The more advanced should follow this.

4. The development of the faculty of mind control, so that the Thinker grips and holds steady the mental processes and learns to regard the mind as the interpreter of the states of consciousness, as the transmitter of egoic intent to the physical brain and as the window through which the Ego, the real Man looks out upon vast and (to the majority) unknown fields of knowledge.

2. An emergence into Manifestation of the Subjective Aspect in Man. One of the objects of evolution is that the subjective reality should eventually be brought forward into recognition. This can be expressed in several symbolic ways, all of them dealing with the same one fact in nature:

The bringing to the birth of the Christ within. The shining forth of the inner radiance or glory. The demonstration of the 2nd or the Love aspect. The manifestation of the solar Angel.  The appearing of the Son of God, the Ego or the Soul within. The full expression of buddhi, as it utilises manas.

This emergence into manifestation is brought about through what is understood by the following terms:

1. The refining of the bodies which form the casket or sheath hiding the reality.

2. The process of 'unveiling' so that one by one those bodies which veil the Self are brought to a point where they are simply transparencies, permitting the full shining forth of the divine nature.

3. An expansion of consciousness, which is brought about through the ability of the self to identify with its real nature as the Onlooker, and no longer regarding itself as the organ of perception.

3. A Re-alignment of the Lower Sheaths so that the contact with the Real Man, the Thinker, the Solar Angel, on the higher levels of the mental plane may become complete and continuous. This only becomes possible as the other two points are beginning to be grasped and the theory as to man's constitution and purpose is somewhat understood. As meditation is practiced, as the lower bodies are painstakingly dominated, and as the nature of the Sutratma or Thread is better comprehended it will become increasingly possible to bring into the lower personality on the physical plane that spiritual illumination and that divine energy which is the soul's heritage. Little by little the light will shine forth, year by year the strength of the higher contact will grow, gradually the downpour of divine love and wisdom into the head centres will be increased until eventually the entire lower man will be transformed, his sheaths will be refined, controlled and used, and he will demonstrate upon earth the powers of Director, Teacher or Manipulator according to the major ray upon which his Monad may be found.

4. A Series of Tests Leading to Initiation. When a man is beginning to demonstrate the qualities of his ray and to prove of gradually increasing importance to his group, he will be prepared through tests, through trials, and through temptations for those final stages in development which will put into his power:

1. The knowledge of certain laws governing matter and form.
2. The keys of the mysteries connected with energy, with polarity, and with group relation.
3. Certain Words of Power which will give him control over the elemental forces of nature.
4. Insight into the planetary plans.

Upon these I need not enlarge, nor need I take up with you here the subject of initiation. (Discipleship in the New Age, Volumes I and II). The first work to be done is the stimulating of aspirants and the preparing of the few earnest ones to tread the Path of Discipleship. The final point of our theme concerns:

5. The Basic Essential of Pure Character. This is something more than just being good. It deals with the matter aspect and has relation to the hold or control that the form has over the man. We might express it this way and therefore give its more occult connotation. If one or other of the three lower elementals (the physical, the astral and the mental) are the controlling factors in the life of the man, he is—by that very fact—put into a position of danger and should take steps to arrest that control prior to an attempt to enter into the formless realm. The reason for this will be apparent. Under the governing law of matter, the law of Economy, the elemental life will attract to itself similar lives and this will result in a dual danger. These dangers are:

1. One: the gathering into the form, through the dominant note sounded by the form elemental, of matter with a synchronous vibration. This will tend to increase the magnitude of the task before the Ego and sweep into increasing dominance the lower man. The "lunar lords" will become increasingly powerful and the solar Lord correspondingly less august.

2. Two: the man will find himself surrounded in time with thoughtforms of a lower order (from the standpoint of the soul) and before he can penetrate into the Arcana of Wisdom and find his way into the Master's world he will have to dispel the clouds of thoughtforms which he has attracted to himself.

Unless the disciple learns that aspiration and self-discipline must proceed side by side, he will find that the spiritual energy he may appreciate and contact will only serve to stimulate the latent seeds of evil in his nature and thereby demonstrate the exactitude of the truth that the great Lord taught when He pictured the man who swept his house, cast out seven devils and eventually was in a worse condition than ever. It is essential that aspirants should understand the nature of the lower man and should grasp the fact that every coherent system has its varying types of energy, and that perfection is achieved when the highest type of energy inherently possible dominates.

If the lower energy of the aggregate of the form-atoms is the controlling factor three things will take place:

1. The form itself will grow by accretion and will become ever more potent, until the dominant voice of its 'lunar lords' will stifle all other voices and the man be swept back into Inertia, Blindness and Bondage.

2. Many people are not only under the control of some one or other of their forms but are the captives of all the three. In studying the lower threefold man and the energies or lives that seek to control him it should be remembered that they fall into three categories:

1. The individual tiny lives which we call the atoms or cells of the body. These exist in three groups and compose respectively the four types of bodies: dense physical, etheric, astral and mental.

2. The aggregate of these lives which constitute in themselves four types of elementals or separate coherent, though not self-conscious, existences. These four lunar lords constitute what the Ageless Wisdom teaching calls "the four sides of the square." They are the "lower quaternary," "the imprisoning cubes," or the cross upon which the inner spiritual Man is to be crucified. These four elementals have an intelligence all their own, are upon the involutionary arc, are following the law of their own being when they tend to become powerful, and thereby fully express that which is in them.

3. A dominant controlling lunar lord who is that which we understand by the term the 'lower personality'; he (if the personal pronoun can be used) is the sumtotal of the physical, astral and mental elementals, and it is this power which at present forces the 'fiery energies' of the body to feed the lower three centres. The etheric body has a unique and curious position, being simply the vehicle for prana or life and the centre which it uses exists in a category by itself.

3. All subhuman forms in their aggregate prove a powerful deterrent factor in the progress towards emancipation of the Real Man. They form the opposite to what we understand by the world of the Master and the two are in direct opposition to each other from the standpoint of the aspirant.

The adept can enter the world of form, can contact it, work in it and remain unaffected by it because there is nothing in him to respond to it. He sees through the illusion to the reality behind and, knowing where he stands himself, there is naught in the appeal and the demand of these lunar lords to attract him. He stands midway between the pairs of opposites. In the realisation of the nature of this world of form, in a comprehension of the lives which compose it, and in an ability to hear the voice of the "formless One" above the strife of all the lower voices, comes the opportunity for the aspirant to escape from the dominance of matter.

This is the true magical work, my brothers, the understanding of the sounds of all beings, and the ability to speak the language of the soul is the clue to the work. These faculties rightly used impose upon these lesser lives that control which will lead to the final liberation, and which will in due time, lead these lives themselves into the realm of self-consciousness. This aspect of the matter is as yet but little comprehended by the sons of men. If they but realised that by a disposition to fall under lunar control they drive the tiny lives in their little system deeper into the darkness of ignorance, they might more rapidly assume their just responsibilities; if they realised that by the constant attempt to impose the rhythm of the solar Lord upon the aggregate of the lunar lords, they were driving these lives onward to self-conscious unfoldment, they might proceed more earnestly and more intelligently. This is the message that must go forth, for all the varying aspects of the life of God are interdependent and not one proceeds onward into fuller realisation without benefitting the entire group.

A few simple suggestions I will give you. These can be useful to all sincere aspirants. In the ordered regulation of the life comes eventual synthesis and the right control of time with all that eventuates therefrom. In the right elimination of that which is secondary, and in a sense of rightly adjusted proportion comes that accuracy and one-pointedness which is the hallmark of the occultist. In the right aspiration at the appointed time comes the necessary contact and the inspiration for the work that has to be done. In the steady adherence to self-appointed rules comes the gradual refining of the instrument and the perfecting of the vehicles that will be—to the Master—the medium of help among many little ones. I commend the above thought to you knowing that you will apprehend the implications and will seriously consider the purport of my remarks.

The world today is in the throes of agony. Just as in the evolving Ego, the moment of greatest development is oft the moment of greatest pain (if apprehension measure up to opportunity) so in the evolving world. To those of you who have the inner sight and intuitive comprehension comes the opportunity to aid that apprehension and to lead a despairing world—deep cast into darkness and distress—one step nearer to the light. The work you have to do is to take the knowledge which is yours and adjust its application to the world's need so that recognition of the truth may be rapid. In the heart of every man lies hid the flower of the intuition. On that you can depend, and no eternal or cosmic fact clothed in a suitable form will fail to receive its meed of recognition and understanding.

20. INTRODUCTORY STATEMENTS

Students at this time would do well to remember that all basic and fundamental changes taking place upon the physical plane are necessarily the result of inner subjective causes, emanating from some level of the divine consciousness, and therefore from some plane other than the physical. The fact that tremendous and unusual upheavals are taking place in the kingdoms of nature is attributed by men to other men or to certain forces generated by human thinking, frailty and ambition.

Is it not possible that these changes are being brought about as the result of certain profoundly important happenings upon inner planes of such advanced states of consciousness that all the average disciple can know about them is their word symbols and their much deleted effects—if I may use such a phrase to describe the happenings which are rending humanity today. The evil that is being wrought today on earth, by certain evil members of the human family, are effects of their response to the inflaming energies and indicate their basic wickedness and their prompt reaction to that which is counter to the good. Wherever the consciousness is focussed, there is the point of major emphasis and importance, and this is true of the individual man and of humanity as a whole. The significance of the present happenings is interpreted (and necessarily so) in terms of human awareness and responsiveness. This world war and its inevitable consequences—good and bad—are looked upon as concerned primarily with humanity, whereas that is not basically so. Humanity suffers and experiences as a result of the inner occurrences and the meeting of subjective forces and inflaming energies.

It is of course not possible for me to give you any true picture of the interior events and happenings in the life of our planetary Being. I can only indicate and point out that the world situation is simply an embodiment of the reaction and the response by mankind to great paralleling and originating happenings which involve the following groups:

1. The emanating Avatar and His relationship to the Lord of the World, our planetary Logos.

2. The Lords of Liberation, focussed in Their high place, as They become conscious of the invocation of humanity and become more closely related to the three Buddhas of Activity.

3. The Great Council at Shamballa and the planetary Hierarchy.

4. The Buddha and His Arhats as They unitedly cooperate with the Christ and His disciples, the Masters of the Wisdom.

5. The Hierarchy, the embodiment of the fifth kingdom in nature, and its magnetic attractive rapport with the human kingdom, the fourth.

6. The effect of all these great groups of Lives upon humanity, and the inherent consequences as they work out in the subhuman kingdoms.

A study of the above in terms of forces and energy will give some idea of the underlying synthesis of relationships and the unity of the whole. There is therefore a line of descending energy which has its origin outside our planetary life altogether; the inflow of this energy, its inevitable effect under cyclic law and its consequences, as they work out upon the physical plane, has produced and is producing all the changes of which mankind is so terribly aware at this time. This swings into immediate conflict the past and the future, and in this statement

I have expressed the deepest esoteric truth which mankind is competent to grasp; it brings into a culminating struggle the Great White Lodge and the Black Lodge and opens the door to great contending energies which we can call spirit and matter, spirituality and materialism, or life and death. These words are, in the last analysis, as meaningless as the terms good and evil, which have significance only in the human consciousness and its inherent limitations.

These descending energies, as they pass through any of the major levels of consciousness which we call planes, produce reactions and responses, dependent upon the state of the conditioning consciousness, and (strange as this may seem to you and well-nigh unintelligible) the effects upon the Hierarchy are even more compelling and transmuting than they are upon humanity. I would add also that the point of lowest descent of the energies has now been reached, and the nature of the present opportunity is therefore changing. These energies have now passed what we might call the turning point and have reached their point of ascension, with all that that phrase implies. As they descend, they produce stimulation; as they ascend, they produce transmutation and abstraction, and the one effect is as unalterable as the other. It is upon this inevitability of the ascending energies, and the effects which they will bring about, that the entire hope of the future depends; nothing can arrest their return or their progress through the planes and back again to their source. Upon this dual process of descent and ascension the whole cyclic panorama of manifestation rests, and upon the inflow and activity of new and higher energies the whole fact of the evolutionary process depends.

It will therefore be apparent to you that the descent of energy brings with it—under the cyclic law— certain new "inspirations," certain new "seeds of hope" for the future, and certain active Agents as well, Who are and will be responsible for the task of preparation, of fertilisation and of all the coming new age enterprises. These descending energies evoke also the obstructing forces, and I would here remind you that these obstructing evil forces (so-called) are met with upon the highest spiritual levels because they are—in their turn—evoked by the impelling impact of the coming Avatar Whose "note is heard ahead of Him, and His energy spreads before Him." This is a great mystery and can only be understood (and then merely theoretically) if you bear in mind that all our planes—even the very highest—are the subplanes of the cosmic physical plane. When this fact is somewhat grasped there comes a simplification of thought.

As a consequence of all this, great and fundamental readjustments are going on within the Hierarchy itself and within that intervening area of the divine consciousness to which we give the name (as far as humanity is concerned) of the Spiritual Triad—an area covered by the higher mental planes, the buddhic and the atmic levels of awareness and of divine activity. The downpouring avataric stimulation is enabling certain of the Masters to take some of the major initiations, and to do so far earlier than would otherwise have been possible. Thus a great process of ascension and of spiritual attainment is under way, though as yet only its faint beginnings can be traced, owing to the intensity of the point of conflict. Hence also many probationary disciples are finding their way into the ranks of accepted disciples, and many disciples are taking initiation. To this fact of hierarchical upheaval— paralleling and intensifying the upheaval upon the physical plane—can be traced the process of preparation which I have instituted among some disciples, thus hastening the period and point of attainment, provided I receive due cooperation from them. (Discipleship in the New Age, Vols. I and II.)

As regards the Hierarchy itself, speaking esoterically and technically, its Members (many of Them) are "being abstracted from the middle point of holiness and absorbed into the Council of the Lord." In other words, They are passing onward into higher work and are becoming custodians of the energy of the divine will and not simply the custodians of the energy of love. They will work henceforth as power-units, and not just as units of light. Their work becomes dynamic instead of being attractive and magnetic, and is concerned with the life aspect and not just with the soul or consciousness aspect.

Their places are being taken—under the Law of Ascension—by Their senior disciples, the initiates in Their Ashrams, and (under the same great process) the place of these initiates, who are thus being "raised" to more important work, is being taken by disciples and probationers. It is this truth, misinterpreted and shockingly travestied, which lies behind the teaching anent the so-called Ascended Masters, put out by the leaders of the "I AM" movement, thus prostituting and bringing down almost into the realm of cheap comedy one of the most notable happenings which has ever taken place upon our planet.

There is therefore, owing to the inflow of energy from extra-planetary sources, a general shifting of the focus of consciousness of embodied and disembodied lives at this time; this shift is one of the prime factors producing the present disruption. Students today are searching for the causes in human motives, in past history and in karmic relationships. To these they add the so-called factor of wickedness. All these factors of course exist, but are of lesser origin and are inherent in the life of the three worlds. They are themselves set in motion by far deeper-seated factors latent in the relationship between spirit and matter and inherent in the dualism of the solar system, and not in its triplicity.

This dualism, as far as our planet is concerned, is profoundly affected by the will-purpose of the Lord of the World and by the intensity of His one-pointed thought. He has succeeded in achieving a point of tension, preparatory to bringing about stupendous changes in His life-expression, within His vehicle of manifestation, a planet. This point of invocation will be evocative of great happenings, and will involve every aspect of His nature, including the dense physical; this of necessity involves also all that concerns the human family for "in Him we live and move and have our being." Those three words or phrases express the triplicity of manifestation, for "Being" connotes the Spirit aspect, "moving" the soul or consciousness aspect, and "living" signifies appearance upon the physical plane. Upon that outer plane the basic synthesis of incarnated life is to be found.

It will be apparent to you, therefore, that in this achievement of planetary tension it is not life in the three worlds that is the sphere of this tension, but the realm of hierarchical activity. The shift resulting from this point of tension, the "moving" which is its consequence, is in the realm of soul experience and soul awareness. The secondary effect can be noted in the human consciousness by the awakening which has been going on among men—an awakening to the higher spiritual values, to the trends and ideologies which are everywhere appearing, and to the clear lines of demarcation which have emerged in the realm of human determinations and objectives. These are all the results of great changes in the field of the higher consciousness and are conditioned by the soul of all things, lying largely in the realm of the anima mundi; of this great sumtotal the human soul and the spiritual soul are but aspects or expressions.

It is these changes in the "moving, shifting realities" of the soul consciousness and spiritual awareness of the Members of the Hierarchy which are responsible for the new trends in the life of the Spirit and the new methods in training disciples—in such an experiment, for instance, as externalising the Ashrams of the Masters. It is this new approach to life conditions, as a result of the inflow of new energies, which is producing the universal trend towards group awareness, and its highest result in the human family is the taking the first steps towards group initiation. Such a thing as group initiation was never heard of prior to the present time, except in connection with the higher initiations emanating from the Shamballa centre. Group initiation is based upon a uniform and united group will, consecrated towards the service of humanity and based upon loyalty, cooperation and interdependence. In the past, the emphasis was upon the individual, his training and approach to initiation, and his solitary admittance to the Temple of Initiation. But this individual concentration will, in the future, give place to a group condition which will enable several disciples unitedly to move forward, unitedly to stand before the Initiator, and unitedly and simultaneously to achieve the great realisation which is the result and the reward of successful discipleship.

In the first thesis which I presented to the public I outlined the Rules for Applicants, (Initiation, Human and Solar), summarising the past propositions and indicating the individual preparation and requirements. These will now apply to the probationary groups of disciples, and not to accepted disciples. They must and will still remain the character and purificatory objectives of the dedicated individual, but are regarded as adequately grasped by humanity; they have been proclaimed by all the great world religions down the centuries and have been recognised as the main conditioning qualities of all disciples.

These same Rules or Formulas of Approach are the lower correspondences of higher rules to which groups of disciples are pledged to conform, and which they must follow and obey together. The Hierarchy into which they will enter when full acceptance and demonstration have been shown will be the same Hierarchy, characterised by the same soul awareness, animated by the same spiritual activity, functioning under the same laws, but conditioned by two progressive and evolutionary developments:

1. A much closer contact—invocative and evocative—with Shamballa, and therefore a fuller responsiveness to the Will aspect of divinity.

2. An invocative attitude on the part of humanity, based on a fundamental decentralisation of the selfish human consciousness and a rapidly awakening group consciousness.

In reality, this means that the Hierarchy will be more closely related to the Great Council at Shamballa, and very much more closely interrelated with humanity, so that a dual fusion will be taking place. This will bring about that integrative process which will be the quality of the New Age and will inaugurate the Aquarian phase of planetary history.

I would now like to bring into a close relation the earlier imparted Rules for Applicants and the new Rules for Disciples, embodying the new group activity and group discipleship, resulting in group initiation.

These Rules are fourteen in number.  Today I will simply give you, first of all the rule for the individual disciple, and then its higher corresponding rule for groups in preparation for group initiation, reminding you that such groups are ever composed of those who have taken the first initiation, and the name of these is legion. They are to be found in every country. There are not, however, so many who are ready for the new era of group initiation.

Rule I

For Applicants: Let the disciple search within the heart's deep cave. If there the fire burns bright, warming his brother yet heating not himself, the hour has come for making application to stand before the door.

For Disciples and Initiates: Within the fire of mind, focussed within the head's clear light, let the group stand. The burning ground has done its work. The clear cold light shines forth and cold it is and yet the heat—evoked by the group love—permits the warmth of energetic moving out. Behind the group there stands the Door. Before them opens out the Way.  Together let the band of brothers onward move—out of the fire, into the cold, and toward a newer tension.

Rule II

For Applicants: When application has been made in triple form, then let the disciple withdraw that application and forget it has been made.

For Disciples and Initiates: The Word has now gone forth from the great point of tension: Accepted as a group. Withdraw not now your application. You could not, if you would; but add to it three great demands and forward move. Let there be no recollection and yet let memory rule. Work from the point of all that is within the content of the group's united life.

Rule III

For Applicants: Triple the call must be and long it takes to sound it forth. Let the disciple sound the call across the desert, over all the seas and through the fires which separate him from the veiled and hidden door.

For Disciples and Initiates: Dual the moving forward. The Door is left behind. That is a happening of the past. Let the cry of invocation issue forth from the deep centre of the group's clear cold light. Let it evoke response from the bright centre, lying far ahead. When the demand and the response are lost in one great SOUND, move outward from the desert, leave the seas behind and know that God is Fire.

Rule IV

For Applicants: Let the disciple tend the evocation of the fire, nourish the lesser lives and thus keep the wheel revolving.

For Disciples and Initiates: Let the group see that all the eighteen fires die down and that the lesser lives return unto the reservoir of life. This they must bring about through the evocation of the Will. The lesser wheels must not for aye revolve in time and space. Only the greater Wheel must onward move and turn.

Rule V

For Applicants: Let the applicant see to it that the Solar Angel dims the light of the lunar angels, remaining the sole luminary in the microcosmic sky.

For Disciples and Initiates: In unison let the group perceive the Triad shining forth, dimming the light of the soul and blotting out the light of form. The macrocosmic Whole is all there is. Let the group perceive that Whole and then no longer use the thought "My soul and thine."

Rule VI

For Applicants: The purificatory fires burn dim and low when the third is sacrificed to the fourth. Therefore let the disciple refrain from taking life and let him nourish that which is lowest with the produce of the second.

For Disciples and Initiates: Let the group know that life is one and naught can ever take or touch that life. Let the group know the vivid, flaming, drenching Life that floods the fourth when the fifth is known. The fifth feeds on the fourth. Let then the group—merged in the fifth—be nourished by the sixth and seventh and realise that all the lesser rules are rules in time and space and cannot hold the group. It onward moves in life.

Rule VII

For Applicants: Let the disciple turn his attention to the enunciating of those sounds which echo in the hall where walks the Master. Let him not sound the lesser notes which awaken vibration within the halls of Maya.

For Disciples and Initiates: Let the group life emit the Word of invocation and thus evoke response within those distant Ashrams where move the Chohans of the race of men. They are no longer men as are the Masters but having passed beyond that lesser stage, have linked Themselves with the Great Council in the highest Secret Place. Let the group sound a dual chord, reverberating in the halls where move the Masters but finding pause and prolongation within those radiant halls where move the Lights which carry out the Will of God.

Rule VIII

For Applicants: When the disciple nears the Portal, the greater seven must awaken and bring forth response from the lesser seven upon the double circle.

For Disciples and Initiates: Let the group find within itself response to the greater seven groups which carry out the hierarchical will with love and understanding. The group contains all seven, the perfect group. The lesser seven, the greater seven and the planetary seven form one great whole, and these the group must know. When this is realised and the Law of the Supplementary Seven is understood let the group understand the Three and then the ONE. This they can do with the united breath and the unified rhythm.

Rule IX

For Applicants: Let the disciple merge himself within the circle of the other selves. Let but one colour blend them and their unity appear. Only when the group is known and sensed can energy be wisely emanated.

For Disciples and Initiates: Let the group know there are no other selves. Let the group know there is no colour, only light; and then let darkness take the place of light, hiding all difference, blotting out all form. Then—at the place of tension, and at that darkest point—let the group see a point of clear cold fire, and in the fire (right at its very heart) let the One Initiator appear Whose star shone forth when the Door first was passed.

Rule X

For Applicants: The Army of the Voice, the devas in their serried ranks work ceaselessly. Let the disciple apply himself to a consideration of their methods; let him learn the rules whereby the Army works within the veils of maya.

For Disciples and Initiates:  The rules for work within the veils of maya are known and have been used. Let the group widen all the rents within those veils and thus let in the light. Let the Army of the Voice be no more heard and let the brothers onward move within the Sound. Then let them know the meaning of the O.M. and let them hear that O.M. as it is sounded forth by Him Who stands and waits at the very centre of the Council Chamber of the Lord.

Rule XI

For Applicants: Let the disciple transfer the fire from the lower triangle to the higher and preserve that which is created through the fire at the midway point.

For Disciples and Initiates: Let the group together move the fire within the Jewel in the Lotus into the Triad and let them find the Word which will carry out that task. Let them destroy by their dynamic Will that which has been created at the midway point. When the point of tension is reached by the brothers at the fourth great cycle of attainment, then will this work be done.

Rule XII

For Applicants: Let the disciple learn to use the hand in service; let him seek the mark of the Messenger in his feet and let him learn to see with the eye which looks out from between the two.

For Disciples and Initiates: Let the group serve as Aquarius indicates; let Mercury speed the group upon the upward Way and let Taurus bring illumination and the attainment of the vision; let the mark of the Saviour, as the group toils in Pisces, be seen above the aura of the group.

Rule XIII

For Applicants: Four things the disciple must learn and comprehend before he can be shown the inmost mystery: first, the laws of that which radiates; the five meanings of magnetisation make the second; the third is transmutation or the secret lost of alchemy; and lastly, the first letter of the Word which has been imparted, or the hidden name egoic.

For Disciples and Initiates: Let the group get ready to reveal the hidden mystery. Let the group demonstrate the higher meaning of the lessons learnt, and these are four and yet are one. Let the group understand the Law of Synthesis, of unity and fusion; let the threefold mode of working with that which is dynamic carry the group together towards the Higher Three where the Will of God holds sway; let Transfiguration follow Transformation and may Transmutation disappear. Let the O.M. be heard right at the centre of the group, proclaiming God is All.

Rule XIV

For Applicants: Listen, touch, see, apply, know.

For Disciples and Initiates: Know, express, reveal, destroy and resurrect.

These are the rules for group initiation and I am dealing with them to give you a fuller understanding of the Laws of Group Life with which I dealt in some of my other books.

I will take these rules and expound for you somewhat of their meaning and indicate their significances as far as these can be grasped now. These instructions are written for future disciples towards the end of this century. They form part of the last volume of A Treatise on the Seven Rays and will, therefore, go out to the general public who will not understand, but thus the needed teaching will be preserved.

22. RULE ONE

We now begin our study of the fourteen rules for those who are seeking initiation, in one or other of its degrees. In Initiation, Human and Solar I gave the rules for those proposing to enter the grades of discipleship. I would like for a minute to deal with the significance of the word "Rule" and give you some idea of its occult meaning.

There is much difference between a Law, an Order or Command, and a Rule, and these distinctions should be pondered with care. The Laws of the universe are simply the modes of expression, the life impulses and the way of existence or activity of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being. There is no avoiding these laws in the last analysis, and there is no denying them, for we are eternally swept into activity by them and they govern and control (from the angle of the Eternal Now) all that happens in time and space. Orders and commands are the feeble interpretations which men give to what they understand by law. In time and space, and at any given moment and in any given location, these commands are issued by those who are in a position of authority or who seem to dominate or are in a position to enforce their wishes. Laws are occult and basic. Orders are indicative of human frailty and limitation.

Rules are, however, different. They are the result of tried experience and of age-long undertakings and—assuming neither the form of laws nor the limitations of a command—they are recognised by those for whom they exist and hence evoke from them a prompt intuitive response. They need no enforcement but are voluntarily accepted, and are put to trial in the belief that the witness of the past and the testimony of the ages warrant the effort required for the expressed requirements.

This is true of the fourteen Rules which we are now going to study. I would remind you that only the initiate consciousness will truly comprehend their significance, but also that your effort so to do will develop in you the beginning of that initiate consciousness, provided you seek to make practical and voluntary application of these rules in your daily lives. They are susceptible of three forms of application—physical, emotional and mental—and of a fourth application which is best designated by the words "the response of the integrated personality to soul interpretation and understanding."

Another point which I would call to your attention, prior to interpreting this rule, is that your group endeavour must be to seek group application, group meaning and group light. I would emphatically emphasise the words "group light." We are dealing, therefore, with something basically new in the field of occult teaching, and the difficulty of intelligent comprehension is consequently great. The true significances are not the simple ones which appear upon the surface. The words of these rules would seem to be almost tritely familiar. If they meant exactly what they appear to mean, there would be no need for me to be giving hints as to their underlying significances and ideas. But they are not so simple.

To sum up, therefore: these Rules are to be read with the aid of a developing esoteric sense; they are related to group initiation in spite of their having individual application; they are not what they appear to be on the surface—trite truisms and spiritual platitudes; but they are rules for initiation which, if followed, will take the disciple and the group through a major spiritual experience; they embody the techniques of the New Age, which necessitate group activity, group procedure and united action.

Earlier I said that these rules are the result of tried experience, and my use of the word "new" in this connotation is related to human knowledge but not to the initiatory procedure. That has always existed and always, at the great crises of initiation, disciples have moved forward in groups, even though they have not been aware of so doing. Now disciples can become so aware, and the various ray ashrams will not only present their groups (large or small) to the Initiator, but the personnel of these groups will now be aware of the fact of group presentation. They will also have to grasp the fact of the extent of their knowledge being dependent upon their decentralisation. I would ask you to ponder and reflect upon this last statement.

Rule I

Within the fire of mind, focussed within the head's clear light, let the group stand. The burning ground has done its work. The clear cold light shines forth and cold it is and yet the heat—evoked by the group love—permits the warmth of energetic moving out. Behind the group there stands the Door. Before them opens out the Way. Together let the band of brothers onward move—out of the fire, into the cold, and toward a newer tension.

It will be profitable if we take this Rule I sentence by sentence and try to wrest from each its group significance.

1. Within the fire of the mind, focussed within the head's clear light, let the group stand.

In this sentence, you have the idea of intellectual perception and of focussed unity. Intellectual perception is not mental understanding, but is in reality the clear cold reason, the buddhic principle in action and the focussed attitude of the Spiritual Triad in relation to the personality. I would call your attention to the following analogies:

In these words you have, therefore, the position of the personality indicated as it stands at the penetrating point of the antahkarana as it contacts the manas or lower mind and is thus the agent of the purpose of the Monad, working through the Spiritual Triad which is—as you know—related to the personality by the antahkarana.

The heart as an aspect of pure reason requires careful consideration. It is usually considered the organ of pure love but—from the angle of the esoteric sciences—love and reason are synonymous terms, and I would have you reflect upon why this should be. Love is essentially a word for the underlying motive of creation. Motive, however, presupposes purpose leading to action, and hence in the group-life task of the incarnating Monad there comes a time when motive (heart and soul) becomes spiritually obsolete because purpose has reached a point of fulfillment and the activity set in motion is such that purpose cannot be arrested or stopped. The disciple cannot then be deterred, and no hindrance or difficulty is hard enough to prevent his moving forward. Then we have eventual destruction of what Theosophists call the causal body and the establishing of a direct relation between the Monad and its tangible expression upon the physical plane. The head centre and the centre at the base of the spine will be in direct unimpeded relation; monadic will and personality will likewise will be in a similar unimpeded relation, via the antahkarana. I would have you remember that the will aspect is the final dominating principle.

In the group application of these ideas the same basic and profound development must take place, and a group of disciples must be distinguished by pure reason, which will steadily supersede motive, merging eventually into the will aspect of the Monad—its major aspect. It is, technically speaking, Shamballa in direct relation with humanity.

What, therefore, is the group will in any ashram or Master's group? Is it present in any form vital enough to condition the group relations and to unite its members into a band of brothers—moving forward into the light?  Is the spiritual will of the individual personalities of such strength that it negates the personality relation and leads to spiritual recognition, spiritual interplay and spiritual relation? It is only in consideration of these fundamental effects of standing as a group in "the head's clear light" that it is permissible for disciples to bring into the picture personal sensitivities and thought, and this only because of a group temporary limitation.

What is it, therefore, which prevents a disciple—as an individual—from having direct approach and direct contact with the Master without being dependent upon an intermediary? Let me illustrate: In the group I have under training (Discipleship in the New Age, Vols. I and II) two or three have direct approach and others have it but know it not; still others are well intentioned and hard driving disciples, but never for a second do they forget themselves; one has had a problem of glamour but now is preoccupied with the problem of spiritual ambition—a spiritual ambition which is working through a very small personality; some could make rapid progress but are too prone to inertia—perhaps I could say that they do not care enough. Each of them (and every other disciple) can place himself. All of them desire to move forward and possess a strong inner spiritual life—hence my finding the time to work with them. But the group antahkarana is still incomplete and the aspect of pure reason and of the heart does not control. The evocative power of the Spiritual Triad is not, therefore, adequate to hold the personality steady and the invocative power of the personality is non-existent—speaking from the angle of the group personalities which make up the personality aspect of the ashram. This is a factor with which they oft feel I have not to deal. It can only become a potent factor if certain personality relations are adjusted and inertia is overcome. Then and only then can "the group stand."

2. The burning ground has done its work.

Here there is quite apt to be misunderstanding. To most people the burning ground stands for one of two things:

1. Either the fire of the mind, burning up those things in the lower nature of which it becomes increasingly aware.

2. Or the burning ground of sorrow, agony, horror and pain which is the characteristic quality of life in the three worlds, particularly at this time.

But the burning ground referred to here is something very different. When the blazing light of the sun is correctly focussed on or through a glass it can cause ignition.  When the blazing light of the Monad is focussed directly upon the personality, via the antahkarana and not specifically through the soul, it produces a blazing fire which burns up all hindrances in a steady, sequential process. Wording it otherwise, when the will aspect streams from the Monad and focusses through the personal will (as the mind can grasp and realise it) it destroys as by fire all elements of self-will. As the energy of Shamballa streams out and makes a direct contact with humanity (omitting the transmission via the Hierarchy, which has hitherto been customary), you have what has been seen in the world today, a destructive conflagration or a world burning ground. When the antahkarana of a group is rightly constructed, then the individualised group-will will disappear in the full consciousness of the monadic purpose or clear directed will. These are points which the disciple preparing for initiation has to consider as he prepares for the higher initiations, and these are the points which any group or ashram in preparation for initiation has also to consider.

The secret of the higher initiations lies in the trained use of the higher will. It does not lie in purification or in self-discipline or in any of the expedients which have acted in the past as interceptors of the truth. This whole problem of the Shamballic will is in process of revelation, and will eventually alter the entire approach of the disciple in the New Age to initiation. The theme of "the Way into Shamballa" requires reflective study and esoteric understanding. In this concept of the new and future section (if I may so call it) of the Way or Path with which the modern disciple is faced lies the secret of the coming revelation and of the spiritual dispensation which will emerge as humanity constructs the new world civilisation and begins to formulate the new culture. The burning, purifying, destructive effects of the monadic will upon its distorted reflection, the individual will, deeply deserves consideration.

For long, aspirants have noted and have been taught the effect of the will upon the astral, or emotional body. It is one of the primary and most elementary of the initial tensions, and is taught upon the Probationary Path. It leads to the purifying and the re-organising of the entire psychic and emotional life, as the result of its destructive action. "If you will only think," "if you will only use a little will," and "if you will only remember that you have a mind," we say to the children of the race and to beginners upon the Path of conscious Return. Little by little, then, the focus and the orientation shift out of the astral life and from the emotional level of consciousness into the mental, and consequently into the reflection of the world of purpose, found in the three worlds. When that stage has been somewhat developed, then there follows, upon the Path of Discipleship and of preparation for initiation, an effort to grasp and understand the higher aspects of this mental process, and the will aspect of the egoic life begins to influence the disciple. The "petals of sacrifice" unfold and the sacred sacrificial aspect of life is revealed in its beauty, purity, simplicity and in its revolutionising quality.

Upon the Path of Initiation, the monadic will (of which the egoic will is the reflection and the individual self-will is the distortion) is gradually transmitted, via the antahkarana, direct to the man upon the physical plane. This produces the higher correspondence of those qualities so glibly spoken of by the well-trained but dense esotericist—transmutation and transformation. The result is the assimilation of the individual will and the egoic will into the purpose of the Monad which is the purpose—undeviating and unalterable—of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being. This is the field of the true burning, for our "God is a consuming Fire." This is the burning bush or the burning tree of life of Biblical symbolism. This highest of all the fires, this deeply spiritual and hitherto seldom recognised burning-ground, has its effects summed up for us in the next phrase or sentence of Rule I.

3. The clear cold light shines forth and cold it is and yet the heat—evoked by the group love—

        permits the warmth of energetic moving out.

In these words you have the key to group initiation. The light of the higher initiations can stream in when it is evoked by the group love. That light is clear and cold, but produces the needed "heat," which is a symbolic word used in many of the world Scriptures to express living, spiritual energy. I said "spiritual energy" and not soul force, and herein lies a distinction which you will some day have to grasp.

This group love is based upon the egoic aspect of the will to which we give the name "sacrificial love." This does not connote happy relationships between individual members of the group. It might, presumably, lead to unhappy outer, superficial interplay, but basically it leads to an unalterably staunch loyalty, underlying the surface of the outer life. The Master's influence, as He seeks to aid His disciple, always produces transitory turmoil—transitory from the angle of the soul, but frequently appalling from the angle of the personality.

Similarly, the projection of the life and influence of any senior disciple into the periphery or aura of the aspirant or lesser disciple is—in its degree—likewise disturbing and upsetting; this is a point which should be carefully borne in mind, both as regards the disciple's own reactions and training, and as regards any effect which he may call forth in the life of a probationary disciple or lesser disciple in his own sphere of influence. These intrusive influences and their consequent effects which are produced upon an individual or a group by a Master or a senior disciple are usually interpreted in personality terms, and are very little understood. They are nevertheless aspects of the higher will in some higher disciple and are beating upon the personality will and evoking the sacrificial will of the Ego, and hence lead to a period of temporary discomfort.

This the aspirant and the inexperienced disciple resent and blame the evoking sources for their discomfort, instead of learning the needed lesson of receiving and handling force.

Where, however, real love exists, it will produce the lessening of the personality will, the evocation of the sacrificial egoic will, and a constantly growing capacity to identify the group with the will or purpose of the Monad. The progress of the group is, therefore, from one burning ground to another— each burning ground being colder and clearer than the preceding one but producing sequentially the burning fire, the clear cold lighted fire, and the consuming divine fire.

Thus in parables the truth goes out, and gradually the initiate grasps the uses of heat, warmth, light and energy; he arrives at an understanding of self-will, sacrificial will and Shamballic purpose, and only Love (self-love, group love, and finally, divine love) can reveal the significance of these symbolic words and the occult paradoxes which confront the true aspirant as he attempts to tread the Way.

As we continue our studies of the rules to be followed by those receiving initiate-training, I would remind you of certain things, some of them already touched upon but requiring re-emphasis. Any usefulness which these Rules may have for you will be dependent upon your grasping a few basic ideas and then proceeding to make them factual as far as in you lies.

First, I would call your attention to what should be the basic attitude of the would-be initiate: It should be one of purpose, governed by pure reason and working out in spiritual activity. That is a sentence easily written, but what specifically does it convey to you? Let me enlarge upon it somewhat. The attitude of the initiate-in-training should be one of right spiritual motive—the motive being the intelligent fulfillment of the will aspect of divinity, or of the Monad. This involves the merging of his personality self-will into that of the sacrificial will of the soul; and this, when accomplished, will lead to the revelation of the divine Will. Of this Will, no one who is not an initiate has any conception. It means, secondly, the release of the faculty of spiritual perception and of intuitive understanding, which involves the negation of the activity of the lower or concrete mind, of the lower personal self, and the subordination of the knowledge aspect of the soul to the clear pure light of the divine understanding.

When these two factors are beginning to be active, you will have the emergence of true spiritual activity upon the physical plane, motivated from the high source of the Monad, and implemented by the pure reason of the intuition. It will be apparent to you, therefore, that these higher spiritual faculties can only be brought into play when the bridging antahkarana is beginning to play its part. Hence the teaching which I am giving on the construction of the rainbow bridge.

These Rules are in reality great Formulas of Approach, but they indicate approach to a specific section of the Path and not approach to the Initiator. I would have you reflect upon this distinction. The "Way of the Higher Evolution" lies open to the aspirant to the Greater Mysteries, but he is oft bewildered in the beginning and frequently questions in his mind the difference between the progress or evolution of the personality towards soul consciousness and the nature of the progress which lies ahead and which is essentially different to the unfoldment of pure consciousness.

Have you grasped the fact that after the third initiation, the initiate is not concerned with consciousness at all, but with the fusion of his individual will with the divine will. He is not then occupied with increasing his sensitivity to contact, or with his conscious response to environing conditions, but is becoming increasingly aware of the dynamics of the Science of the Service of the Plan. This distinctive realisation can only come when his fused and blended personality and soul expression of will has disappeared in the blazing light of the divine Purpose—a purpose which cannot be frustrated even if at times delayed, as it has been during the past fifty-five years. (Written in February, 1943.)

Much of what I have said above will seem meaningless to you because the finished contact between soul and personality has not been brought about and the will aspect in manifestation is not yet understood in its three phases: Personality, Egoic and Monadic. But, as I have earlier told you, I write for those disciples and initiates who are now coming into incarnation and who will be in the full flower of their consciousness and service at the latter end of this century. But the effort you make to understand will have its effect, even if the brain registers it not.

In the last analysis, these Rules or Formulas of Approach are primarily concerned with the Shamballa or life aspect.  They are the only Formulas or embodied techniques at present extant which have in them the quality which will enable the aspirant to understand and eventually express the significance of the words of Christ, "Life more abundantly." These words relate to contact with Shamballa; the result will be the expression of the will aspect. The whole process of invocation and evocation is tied up with the idea. The lesser aspect is ever the invoking factor, and this constitutes an unalterable law lying behind the entire evolutionary process. It is necessarily a reciprocal process, but in time and space it might be broadly said that the lesser ever invokes the higher, and higher factors are then evoked and respond according to the measure of understanding and the dynamic tension displayed by the invoking element. This many fail to realise. You do not work at the evocative process. That word simply connotes the response of that which has been reached. The task of the lesser aspect or group is invocative, and the success of the invocative rite is called evocation.

When, therefore, your life is fundamentally invocative, then there will come the evocation of the will. It is only truly invocative when personality and soul are fused and functioning as a consciously blended and focussed unit.

The next point which I seek to make is that these Formulas of Approach or Rules deal with the unfoldment of group consciousness, because it is only in group formation that, as yet, the Shamballa force of the will can be tapped. They are useless to the individual under the new initiatory dispensation. Only the group, under the proposed new mode of working and of group initiation, is capable of invoking Shamballa. That is why Hitler, the exponent of the reversed reaction to Shamballa (and consequently the evil reaction) had to gather around him a group of like-minded people or personalities. On the upper arc of the evocative cycle (Hitler being the expression of the invocative arc of the Shamballa force) it requires a group to bring about evocation.

We now come to my third point in relation to the Rules or Formulas and their objective. They are concerned—above everything else—with group initiation. They have other applications, but for the present here lies their usefulness. What, you may ask, is group initiation? Does it involve the taking of initiation by every member in the group? Can one person have so extensive an influence that he can hold up or delay or even prevent (in time and space) the group initiation? The group need not necessarily contain members who have all taken the same initiation. By this I mean that the necessary initiation of all the members simultaneously into the same group development is not required.

Basically, what I am endeavouring to say anent these Rules has relation to the third initiation—the initiation of the integrated personality. They necessarily, however, have a correspondence to the second initiation, and are consequently of more general interest, for it is that initiation which faces so many aspirants today—the demonstration of the control of the formidable emotional nature.

I would ask you to think much about this point which I have just made. Group initiation means that the bulk of the members are correctly oriented; that they are proposing to accept the discipline which will prepare them for the next great expansion of consciousness, and that none of them can possibly be deviated from their purpose (note that word with its first ray or Shamballic implications), no matter what is happening in their environment or their personal life. You need to reflect on this if you desire to make the needed progress.

In these short instructions, which aim only at a "tentative indication" (note that phrase), it is not necessary to enter into explicit details. In any case, if the Formulas or Rules are not intuitively clear to your minds, anything I could say would only hinder and frustrate my purpose.

Finally, these Formulas or Rules are susceptible of three forms of application or interpretation and I would have you remember this, because you can thereby discover where your individual focus of attention is and if you are consequently functioning as an integrated personality. Remember always that only an integrated personality can achieve the needed soul focus. This is a fundamental requirement. These three forms of application are physical, emotional and mental in nature. But those words in their simplest connotation have true reference to the task of achieving one or other of the higher initiations. The only way their significance can truly appear is by grasping the following meanings:

1. The physical application refers to the usage by the group of the given knowledge and intuitively perceived information in such a way that the needs of the larger group, of which the group itself is a part, are constructively served. The consummation of this ideal is to be found in the activity of the Hierarchy itself which, from progressive point to progressive point, finds itself in the position of intuitive interpreter and force transmitter between the centre of Shamballa and Humanity. The individual initiate, on the way to one or other of the higher initiations, has in his lesser degree to achieve the same dual function and thereby fit himself for the wider cooperation.

2. The emotional application has definite reference to the world of meaning, interpreted in a group sense. At present, well-meaning aspirants are satisfied if they are able to interpret their personality conditions, events and happenings in terms of their real meaning. But that still remains an individual reaction. The aspirant who is seeking to comprehend these Rules is more interested in seeing the situations which he contacts in terms of a world whole, and in searching for their meaning in terms of their group significance. This serves to decentralise him and to convey into his consciousness some aspect of that larger whole, and this in its turn contributes to the expansion of the consciousness of humanity as a whole.

3. The mental application has to be grasped and considered in terms of the "great light." It must be remembered that the mind is the organ of illumination. Therefore it might be asked: Do the united mental processes of the group as a whole tend to throw light on human problems and situations? How much does the light of the individual group member aid in this process? How much light do you, as an individual, register and therefore contribute to the greater light? Is the group light a dim flicker or a blazing sun?

Such are some of the implications lying behind the use of these familiar words, and the careful consideration of their meaning might bring about a definite expansion of consciousness. This expansion normally follows certain clear and definite stages:

1. A recognition of the goal. This goal is often expressed under the word "the door." A door permits entrance into some place larger than the area covered by the standing room of the would-be initiate. This statement refers to the "door of incarnation" through which the incarnating soul enters into life— limited and restricted from the angle of the soul. The door of initiation admits "into a larger room" or sphere of extended expression.

2. The approach, under regulated and imposed and well-tried rules, of the entering one towards a visioned goal. This involves conformity to that which has been tried, known and demonstrated by all previous initiates.

3. The arresting of the steps of the initiate before the door in order that he may "prove himself to be initiate" prior to entry.

4. The passing of certain tests in order to demonstrate fitness.

5. Then comes the stage of entrance—under due and set rules and yet with full freedom of action. You will see, therefore, why ever the need for understanding is emphasised.

Before proceeding to study the final phrases of Rule One, I would call your attention to the fact that the initiate has faced two major tests, symbolically described as "the burning ground" and the "clear cold light." Only after he has successfully passed these can he—or the group, when considering group initiation—move forward and outward into the wider reaches of the divine consciousness. These tests are applied when the soul grips the personality and the fire of divine love destroys the loves and desires of the integrated personality. Two factors tend to bring this about: the slow moving forward of the innate conscience into greater control, and the steady development of the "fiery aspiration" to which Patanjali makes reference. These two factors, when brought into living activity, bring the disciple into the centre of the burning ground which separates the Angel of the Presence from the Dweller on the Threshold. The burning ground is found upon the threshold of every new advance, until the third initiation has been taken.

The "clear cold light" is the light of pure reason, of infallible intuitive perception and its unremitting, intensive and revealing light constitutes a major test in its effects. The initiate discovers the depths of evil, and at the same time is enticed forward by the heights of a growing sense of divinity. The clear cold light reveals two things:

1. The omnipresence of God throughout nature, and therefore throughout the entire personality life of the initiate or of the initiate group. The scales fall from the eyes, bringing about—paradoxically—the "dark night of the soul" and the sense of being alone and bereft of all help. This led (in the case of the Christ, for instance) to that appalling moment in the Garden of Gethsemane, and which was consummated on the Cross, when the will of personality-soul clashed with the divine will of the Monad. The revelation to the initiate of the ages of severance from the Central Reality, and of all its attendant implications, descends upon the one who is attempting to stand "in isolated Unity," as Patanjali (to quote him a second time) calls the experience.

The omnipresence of divinity within all forms pours in upon the consciousness of the initiate, and the mystery of time, space and electricity stands revealed. The major effect of this revelation (prior to the third initiation) is to bring to the disciple a realisation of the "great heresy of separateness," as it focusses in him, the separated fully conscious individual—aware of his past, conscious now of his ray and its conditioning power, focussed in his own aspiration, and yet part of the great whole of nature.

From that moment onward he knows that divinity is all there is, and this he learns through the revelation of the inherent separativeness of the form life, through the processes of "the dark night of the soul" and its culminating lesson of the significance of isolation and the freeing process which brings about the merging into unity through the emission of the sound, the cry, the invocation, such as the cry of the Christ upon the Cross symbolised. His exact words have not been transmitted to us. They vary for each ray, but all bring about the recognition of divine merging, in which all separating veils are "rent from the top to the bottom" as The New Testament expresses it.

2. The omniscience of the divine Whole is also brought home to the initiate through the medium of the clear cold light, and the phases of "isolated experience," as it is sometimes occultly called, is forever ended. I would have you realise what this can mean in so far as possible to your present consciousness. Up till the present, the initiate-disciple has been functioning as a duality and as a fusion of soul-energy and personality-force. Now these forms of life stand exposed to him for what they essentially are, and he knows that—as directing agencies and as transitory gods—they no longer have any hold over him. He is being gradually translated into another divine aspect, taking with him all that he has received during the ages of close relation and identification with the third aspect, form, and the second aspect, consciousness. A sense of being bereft, deserted and alone descends upon him as he realises that the control of form and soul must also disappear. Here lies the agony of isolation and the overpowering sense of loneliness. But the truths revealed by the clear cold light of the divine reason leave him no choice. He must relinquish all that holds him away from the Central Reality; he must gain life and "life more abundantly." This constitutes the supreme test in the life cycle of the incarnating Monad; and "when the very heart of this experience enters into the heart of the initiate, then he moves outward through that heart into full life expression." Such is the way that the Old Commentary expresses this. I know no other way in which to bring the idea before you. The experience undergone is not related to form, nor is it connected with consciousness or with even the higher psychic sensitivity. It consists of pure identification with divine purpose. This is made possible because the self-will of the personality and the enlightened will of the soul have both equally been relinquished.

4. Behind the group there stands the Door.  Before them opens out the Way.

Note how this passage reverses the usual presentation. Hitherto, in the occult books, the Door of Initiation has been presented as ever moving forward ahead of the initiate. He passes through door after door into a wider experience and expansion of consciousness. But in the initiate consciousness, after the first two initiations, this is not the realisation. It is simply the adhering to an old form of symbolism with the implied limitations of the truth. I would here remind you that the third initiation is regarded by the Hierarchy as the first major initiation, and that the first and second initiations are initiations of the Threshold. For the bulk of humanity, these first two initiations will for a very long time constitute major initiatory experiences, but in the life and realisation of the initiate-soul, they are not. After the two initiations of the threshold have been undergone the attitude of the initiate changes and he sees possibilities and factors and revelations which have hitherto been totally unrealised and unknown, even to his consciousness at his highest moments.

The door of initiation looms large in the consciousness of the neophyte; the higher Way is the determining factor in the life of the initiate of the third degree. It is the Transfiguration; and a new glory pours through the transfigured initiate who has been released from every type of grip by either the personality or the soul. For the first time, the goal of the higher Way and the attainment of Nirvana (as the Oriental calls it) appears before him, and he knows that no forms and no spiritual complexes and no pull by either soul or form, or by both united, can have any effect upon his attaining his final destination.

I would like for a moment to refer here to the door symbology as the initiate begins to grasp the inner meaning of those simple words. For long the teaching, given in the clear cold light, anent the door and the emphasis put upon the presentation of the door lying ahead of the aspirant has been made familiar, but that has been working with the lower aspects of the symbolism, even if aspirants did not realise it; they have been taught the fact of the light in the head, which is the personality correspondence to the clear cold light to which I refer. At the very centre of that light, as many aspirants know theoretically or factually by inconstant experience, is a centre or point of dark indigo blue—midnight blue. Note the significance of this in view of what I have been saying anent the "dark night," the midnight hour, the zero hour in the life of the soul. That centre is in reality an opening, a door leading somewhere, a way of escape, a place through which the soul imprisoned in the body can emerge and pass into higher states of consciousness, untrammelled by form limitations; it has also been called "the funnel or the channel for the sound"; it has been named the "trumpet through which the escaping A.U.M. can pass." The ability to use this door or channel is brought about by the practice of alignment; hence the emphasis laid upon this exercise in the attempt to train aspirants and disciples.

Once alignment has been achieved, it will be realised (remembering the symbolism of the head, the light and the central opening) that many occasions arise in meditation when "behind the group there stands the door; before them opens out the Way." This is the lower correspondence of the higher initiate-experience with which our rule is dealing.

Again, this time in relation to the soul, comes the repetition of the discovery of the Door, its use and its appearance, finally, behind the initiate. This time the door must be found upon the mental plane, and not as earlier upon the etheric level; this is brought about by the aid of the soul and of the lower mind and through the revealing power of the clear cold light of the reason. When discovered, the "revelation of a terrible though beautiful experiment" faces the initiate. He finds that this time alignment is not his need, but the definite undertaking of a creative work—the building of a bridge between the door which lies behind and the door which lies ahead. This involves the construction of what is technically the antahkarana, the rainbow bridge. This is built by the disciple-in-training upon the basis of his past experience; it is anchored in the past and firmly grounded in the highest, rightly oriented aspect of the personality. As the disciple then creatively works, he finds that there is a reciprocal action on the part of the Presence, the Monad—the unity which stands behind the Door. He discovers that one span of the bridge (if I might so call it) is being built or pushed forward from the other side of the gulf separating him from experience in the life of the Spiritual Triad. This Spiritual Triad is essentially, to the initiate, what the threefold personality is to the man in physical incarnation.

I wonder if I have succeeded in giving you at least a general idea of the possibilities lying ahead of the disciple, and incited you to definite conscious response to those possibilities. I cannot do other than speak in terms of consciousness, even though the life of the Triad—leading in its turn to identification with the Monad, as the personality life leads eventually to soul control and expression—has naught to do with consciousness or sensitivity as those terms are commonly understood. Yet remember how, in all my teachings upon occult unfoldment, I have used the word IDENTIFICATION. This is the only word I have found which can in any way convey the complete unity which is finally achieved by those who develop a sense of unity, and who refuse to accept isolation; separateness then fades out entirely. The isolated unity achieved is unity with the Whole, with Being in its totality (and this cannot as yet convey much to you).

5. Together let the band of brothers onward move; out of the fire, into the cold, and toward a

        newer tension.

Here, in very brief form, certain basic instructions are given. Each of them indicates the new attitudes imposed upon all who have taken initiation. They cannot be interpreted in terms of the Path of Discipleship or of Probation. The ordinary and easily-arrived-at significances mean little to the initiate mind. Let me briefly consider them so that clarity of concept, though not of detail, may prevail.

1. Out of the fire. This is a symbolic way of indicating that the personality life is definitely and finally left behind. It is this phrase which gives the clue to the initiation which is referred to in this Rule.

Each of these Rules contains within itself the clue to the particular initiation to which reference is being made. The Rules are not placed in their right order, having sequential reference to the seven initiations. The intuition of the aspirant must be invoked if he is to arrive at right knowledge. I shall sometimes indicate the initiation involved, but not always, as it would profit not. The clue to the seventh initiation which lies ahead for such high Beings as the Christ would be of no service to you at all. The clue to the initiation of the Transfiguration can be of importance, as it involves the personality, and many of you in the not so distant future (from the angle of the aeonial life cycle of the soul) will face that.  The secret of the third initiation is the demonstration of complete freedom from the claims and demands of the personality. It does not involve the achievement of a completely perfect expression of the spiritual life, but it does indicate that the service of the initiate and his life demonstration—regarded in a broad and general way, from the angle of the life-tendency and of entire dedication to humanity—remains untouched by the limitations, still existent, of the personal lower self.

2. Into the cold. This means that the focus of the life is now in the realm of clear truth and of pure reason. The life of the initiate is being rapidly transferred out of the egoic centre, the soul vehicle, on to the level of the buddhic life or state of being. Note, I do not say "of consciousness." This is formless, but preserves the fruitage of form experience. It is being oriented towards a realised unity and identification with the life aspect of divinity, and yet preserves its own recognised and achieved identity. On this level of pure impersonality and of right orientation the group stands, obedient to the rule which governs this particular stage of development.

3. Toward a newer tension. The interpretation of the phrase presents difficulty. This is owing to the false impression which the word "tension" conveys at this time. It is associated in the minds of the reading public with the thought of nerves, with points of crisis, with courage and with fatigue. Is this not so? But in reality tension, occultly understood, is not associated with these aspects of personality reaction at all. The esoteric significance of tension (as far as I can explain it by limiting words) is "focussed immovable Will." Right tension is the identification of brain and soul with the will aspect, and the preservation of that identification—unchanged and immovable—no matter what the circumstances and the difficulties.

You can see, therefore, how far ahead of present attitudes and goals this teaching is. Identification with the soul and with the Hierarchy is dependent upon the ability of the disciple rightly to love. It is the emergence of the second divine aspect, for love is the expression of group life, and that is rare indeed to find in these days. Right tension indicates the emergence of the first aspect, of the will, and this is seldom to be found as yet, save among the more advanced disciples and initiate members of the Hierarchy.

1. Love governs the Way into the life of the Hierarchy and is the foundation for all approach to, and appreciation and acceptance of truth.

2. Will governs the Way into Shamballa and is the foundation for all approach to, appreciation of and identification with, Being.

This developed will expresses itself as tension, esoterically understood. It embodies the ideas of orientation, implacable determination, ability to wait and to preserve intention and orientation unmoved by aught which may occur. It also involves the determination to take the intended action (always of a creative nature and based on loving understanding) at the psychological moment (right timing), or that exact moment which the psyche or soul determines to be correct. Here you have one of the interesting transferences of meaning and of relationship which occur in the Ageless Wisdom. The Son or soul emerges into manifestation with the concurrence and aid of the Mother or of the matter aspect. This is to you a most familiar truth. In the next stage, that of initiate-development, the Son, in its turn, becomes the feminine or negative aspect and, demonstrating as the Psyche, enables the initiate to bring into expression another divine aspect—that of the will. Until the fourth initiation is undergone, it is the soul as a "focal point for descending light and for ascending radiance." This dual activity reveals the nature of the will. Note how this phrase from an ancient writing describes the antahkarana.

It is not possible in these brief instructions to deal adequately with the will aspect of divinity, nor would it profit at this time. Aspirants have to learn the nature of the will by the power of inner illumination and by certain intelligent recognitions. They learn the nature of the self through the aid of the personality, the shadow or distortion of the divine will. They pass from the expression of the will which is purely selfish, self-sufficient and self-focussed, to the grasp of the group will and to the effort to embody that group will. This group will is always concerned with that which is not the will of the separated self.

As this ability to be selflessly decentralised grows and develops, the aspirant reaches a point where the group life and the group good is seen as an integral part of a much greater Whole. This greater Whole is Being Itself, divorced from form but ever working through form whilst in manifestation, and working with planned purpose. The realisation then grows that intelligence and love are not enough, but that they must be supplemented and implemented by will, which is active intelligent purpose, lovingly applied.

The difficulty of this subject is inherent in the fact that basically (no matter how strange this may seem) love is the line of least resistance for the developed human being. It is the governing principle of the present solar system. Will is the governing principle of the next or coming solar system, which will be brought into manifestation through the agency of those human beings who—in this solar system— arrive at the full expression of the will aspect. Then, in the coming consummating manifestation, love will be to the will aspect what intelligence is, in this solar system, to love.

23. RULE TWO

In our study of Rule One on Initiation, we gained, or perhaps fixed more clearly in our minds, three major thoughts:

1. That the Path of Initiation is one on which we develop the Will aspect of divinity.

2. We learn also to use consciousness as a jumping off place for the recognition of a new state of realisation, which is not consciousness at all, as we understand that term.

3. We undergo, prior to each initiation, two major tests—that of the burning ground and that of the clear cold light.

We closed our discussion with the thought of Tension and I defined it as the identification of the brain and soul with the will aspect and the preservation of that identification—unchanged and immovable— in all circumstances and difficulties. I mention this as the "tension" concept or point of attainment underlies the teaching of the rule which we are now going to consider.

Rule II

The WORD has now gone forth from the great point of tension: Accepted as a group. Withdraw not now your application. You could not, if you would; but add to it three great demands and forward move. Let there be no recollection and yet let memory rule. Work from the point of all that is within the content of the group's united life.

A close analysis of this rule will convey to the intuition far more than appears upon the surface, and that is rich enough. Each of these rules holds in it the seed of that understanding which must be evoked before the next rule can be mastered. All that is given is ever based on that which has gone before. The "three great demands" of the initiate are based upon the "triple call" found in Rule Two for aspirants and disciples. The triple call was earlier sounded forth. Now its higher significances must be comprehended.

There are only four parts to this rule, which is one of prime importance because it contains the motivating force, the conditioning factors and the place of triumph—all these are indicated.  We will, as is our usual custom, study each separate part sequentially and as far as possible in detail bearing in mind that initiation deals with factors in latent manifestation for which our languages have no words, and with ideas which are not yet to be found among the "raincloud of knowable things" (as Patanjali calls it)—that is, knowable to the masses of men. The initiate is, however, dealing with a world of meaning and of affairs which are not yet manifesting in any way. The task of the Master (and of Those higher than He) is to take those steps and precipitate those "waiting events" which will eventually bring them into manifestation. This, I would remind you, is always done by the use of the will and from a point of tension.

1. The Word has now gone forth from the great point of tension: Accepted as a group.

I would like here to call your attention to the progressive nature of the esoteric science; it is nowhere better illustrated than in this phrase; nowhere is it more clearly shown and yet, unless the intuition and the sense of correlation are functioning, the idea might escape recognition.

In all the teaching given to the aspirant and to the disciple in the early stages of their training, the emphasis has been upon the "point of light" which must be discovered, brought into full illumination, and then so used that the one in whom the light shines becomes a light-bearer in a dark world. This, the aspirant is taught, becomes possible when contact with the soul has been made and the light is found. This is familiar teaching to many and is the essence of the progress to be made by aspirants and disciples in the first part of their training.

We now, however, pass on to another expression and to the next development in the life of the initiate, which is learning to work from a "point of tension." Here lies the new emphasis, and I am bringing it to the attention of humanity as mankind nears the close, the terrible but liberating finale, of his great test in this modern burning-ground. Now men can pass on into the clear cold light, and from there begin to hold that point of tension which will be evocative of the needed "understanding will-to-move forward" along the line of human will-to-good—the first phase of the development of the will aspect. It is the higher sublimation of the aspirational stage which precedes the attainment of the "point of light" through contact with the soul.

The point of tension is found when the dedicated will of the personality is brought into touch with the will of the Spiritual Triad. This takes place in three clearly defined stages:

1. The stage wherein the lower will aspect which is focussed in the mental body—the will-to-activity of the personality—is brought into contact with the higher abstract mind; this latter is the interpreting agent for the Monad and the lowest aspect of the Triad. Two things can be noted in this respect:

1.    This contact becomes possible from the moment that the first thin strand of the antahkarana, the rainbow bridge, is completed between the mental unit and the manasic permanent atom.

2. This demonstrates in an absorbing devotion to the Plan and is an effort, at any cost, to serve that Plan as it is progressively understood and grasped.

This expresses itself in the cultivation of goodwill, as understood by the average intelligent human being and put into action as a way of life.

2. The stage wherein the love aspect of the soul is brought into touch with the corresponding aspect of the Triad, to which we give the inadequate name of the intuition. This is in reality divine insight and comprehension, as expressed through the formulation of ideas. Here you have an instance of the inadequacy of modern language; ideas are formless and are in effect points of energy, outward moving in order eventually to express some "intention" of the divine creating Logos. When the initiate grasps this and identifies himself with it, his goodwill expands into the will-to-good. Plan and quality give place to purpose and method. Plans are fallible and tentative and serve a temporary need. Purpose, as expressed by the initiate is permanent, farsighted, unalterable, and serves the Eternal Idea.

3. The stage wherein—after the fourth initiation—there is direct unbroken relation between the Monad, via the Triad, and the form which the Master is using to do His work among men. This form may be either His temporary personality, arrived at along the normal lines of incarnation, or the specially created form to which Theosophists give the technical but cumbersome word "mayavirupa." It is the "true mask, hiding the radiant light and the dynamic energy of a revealed Son of God." This is the esoteric definition which I offer you. This stage can be called the attainment of the will-to-be, not Being as an individual expression but Being as an expression of the Whole—all-inclusive, nonseparative, motivated by goodness, beauty and truth and intelligently expressed as pure love.

All these stages are achieved by the attainment of one point of tension after another, and the work thus carried forward into the realm of the dynamic steadfast will. This will, as it is progressively developed, works ever from a constant point of tension.

We come now to the consideration of a subject which always proves exceedingly difficult to students: The nature of the WORD, the A.U.M., and its later developments, the O.M. and the Sound. Much confusion exists as to its significance or the necessity for its use. The phase of its recognition through which we are now passing is a purely exoteric one of accustoming the general public to the fact of its existence. This has been brought about in three ways:

1. Through the constant use in all the Christian Churches of the word "Amen," which is a western corruption of the A.U.M. The A.U.M. is here the lowest aspect of the originating Sound.

2. Through the emphasis laid in Masonry upon the Lost Word, thus subtly drawing the attention of humanity to the O.M., the Sound of the second aspect, the Soul.

3. Through the growing emphasis laid by the many occult groups throughout the world upon the use of the O.M., its frequent use by these groups in public, and by those intent upon meditation.

The soundest approach is that of the Masonic tradition, because it deals primarily with the world of meaning and with a phase of the esoteric teaching. The use of the Amen in the ritual of the Christian Church will eventually be discouraged, because it is basically a materialistic affirmation, being usually regarded by the average churchgoer as setting the seal of divine approval upon his demand to the Almighty for protection, or for the supply of his physical necessities; all this is, therefore, related to the life of desire, of aspiration, of dualism and of request. It involves the attitude of giver and recipient.

The A.U.M. and the Amen are both of them an expression in sound of the principle of active intelligent substance in the divine manifestation, the third aspect, and have served human need in that phase of material and form development. I refer here also to the development of mind or of the mental form.

The personality as a whole, when perfected and brought under control of the soul, is the "Word made flesh."

The mass of aspirants and of disciples are today learning the meaning of the O.M., which is not the Word made flesh, but the Word released from form, and expressing itself as soul-spirit and not as body-soul-spirit. It might, therefore, be said that:

1. The A.U.M. (note that I separate each aspect of this triple sound) brings the soul-spirit aspect down on to the physical plane and anchors it there by the force of its outgoing vibration. Using a symbol to make my meaning clear, it is like "a strong wind that pins a man against a wall and makes free effort difficult." It vivifies form; it intensifies the hold of matter upon the soul; it builds around the soul a confining prison—a prison of the senses. It is the "sound of enchantment," the sound that is the source of glamour and of maya; it is the great beguiling and deceptive energy, the note of the involutionary arc. In it are hid the secret of evil or matter, the uses of form, first as a prison, then as a training ground and as a field of experience, and finally as the expression for the manifestation of a Son of God.

2. The O.M. rightly sounded, releases the soul from the realm of glamour and of enchantment. It is the sound of liberation, the great note of resurrection and of the raising of humanity to the Secret Place of the Most High when all other Words and sounds have failed. It is not a triple sound as is the A.U.M., but a dual sound, significant of the relation of spirit and soul, and of life and consciousness. This lost Word, symbolic of the loss in the three worlds (typified by the degrees of the Blue Lodges in Masonry) must be recovered and is in process of discovery today. The mystics have sought after it; the Masons have preserved the tradition of its existence; the disciples and initiates of the world must demonstrate its possession.

3. The SOUND is the sole expression of the Ineffable Name, the secret appellation of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being, and Who is known to the Great White Lodge through this name. Remember always that name and form are synonymous terms in the occult teaching, and these two words hold the secret of manifestation. The goal of the initiate is identification with all forms of the divine life, so that he can know himself to be an integral part of that Whole and can tune in on all states of divine awareness, knowing for himself (and not just theoretically) that they are also his own states of awareness. He can then penetrate into the divine arcana of knowledge, share in the divine omnipresence and—at will—express the divine omniscience and prepare himself to manifest in full consciousness the divine omnipotence.

I am using words which are futile to convey the underlying meaning of the Word. Understanding can only be arrived at when a man lives the Word, hearing its soundless Sound and breathing it forth in a vital life-giving breath to others.

The masses are hearing the sound of the A.U.M. and, in their higher brackets, are finding that A.U.M. the expression of something from which they seek release. The aspirants and disciples of the World are hearing the O.M. and in their personal lives the A.U.M. and the O.M. are in conflict. This may represent a new idea to you, but it conveys an idea of an eternal fact. It may help you to gain an understanding of this phase if I point out for you that for this first group the O.M. can be portrayed in the following symbol as expressing the material M nature whereas the second group can be portrayed by the symbol m expressive of the soul enveloped in matter. You will see, therefore, how the teaching leads man progressively onward and how the occult science brings man in touch with great mental reversals and divine paradoxes. For aeons the Word of the soul and the Sound of spiritual reality are lost. Today, the Word of the soul is being found again, and with that finding the little self is lost in the glory and the radiance of the divine Self.

This discovery is consummated at the time of the third initiation. The initiate and the Master, along with those of higher rank who are approaching identification with Shamballa, are steadily and ever more clearly hearing the Sound emanating from the Central Spiritual Sun and penetrating all forms of divine life upon our planet—via our Planetary Logos Who hears it with clarity and with understanding—the Sound of the lowest syllable of the Ineffable Name of the One in Whom all the Planetary Logoi live and move and have Their Being, for They are centres in the LIFE which is expressing itself through the medium of a solar system.

You can see how little use there is in my enlarging further upon this. Its sole usefulness is to give an expanding impulse to the consciousness of the disciple and to stir his imagination (the seed of the intuition), so that even whilst occupied in expressing the M and then the m, he will be reaching out after the Sound.

Earlier I pointed out that the sound of the A.U.M., the sound of the O.M. and the SOUND itself are all related to vibration and to its differing and varied effects. The secret of the Law of Vibration is progressively revealed as people learn to sound forth the Word in its three aspects. Students would also do well to ponder on the distinction between the breath and the Sound, between the process of breathing and of creating directed vibratory activity. The one is related to Time and the other to Space and they are distinct from each other; and "the Sound, the final and yet initiating Sound, concerns that which is neither Time nor Space; it lies outside the manifested ALL, the Source of all that is and yet is naught." 

There are, therefore, great points of tension from which the Sacred Word, in its major aspects, goes forth. Let me list them for you:

1. The creative point of tension—a tension achieved by a planetary Logos when He responds to the Sound of the Ineffable Name and breathes it forth in His turn in three great Sounds which made one Sound on His Own plane of expression, thus creating the manifested world, the impulse towards the unfoldment of consciousness, and the influence of life itself. This is the Sound.

2. Seven points of tension on the downward or involutionary arc; these produce the seven planets, the seven states of consciousness, and the expression of the seven ray impulses. This constitutes the sevenfold A.U.M. of which the Ageless Wisdom takes note. It is related to the effect of spirit or life upon substance, thus originating form and creating the prison of the divine life.

3. The A.U.M. itself or the Word made flesh; this creates finally a point of tension in the fourth kingdom in nature, at which point the evolutionary cycle becomes possible and the first dim note of  the O.M. can be faintly heard. In the individual man this point is reached when the personality is an integrated and functioning whole and the soul is beginning to control it. It is an accumulative tension arrived at through many lives. This process is expressed in the Masters' Archives as:

You must remember that these symbols are an attempt on my part to translate ancient signatures in modern occidental type. The only one which is the same in all languages is, esoterically, the A.U.M.

4. Then comes a point of tension from which the man eventually achieves liberation from the three worlds and stands as a free soul; he is then a point within the circle—the point indicating the point of tension from which he now works, and the circle the sphere of his self-initiated activity.

I need not carry the story further; from tension to tension the initiate passes just as do all human beings, aspirants, disciples and the lower grades of initiates; from one expansion of consciousness to another they go until the third initiation is undergone and points of tension (qualified by intension and purpose) supersede all previous efforts and the will aspect begins to control.

Here, briefly, is a fresh slant upon the familiar theme of the Word—a theme preserved in some form by all the world religions but a theme which, like all else, has been so materialised that it is the task of the Hierarchy to restore the knowledge of its meaning, of its threefold application and its involutionary and evolutionary significances. Students would do well to remember that its sounding forth vocally upon the physical plane means little. The important factors are to sound it silently, inaudibly and within the head; then, having done so, to hear it reverberate there and to recognise that this self-initiated Sound— breathed forth from a point of tension—is a part of the original SOUND as it takes form as a Word.

When a man perfectly empresses the A.U.M., he can then sound the O.M. with effectiveness from progressive points of tension, until the third initiation. Then the effect of the O.M. is such that the personality as a separate identity disappears, the soul emerges in all its glory, and the first faint sound of the originating SOUND breaks upon the ear of the transfigured initiate. This is the Voice referred to in the Biblical account of the Transfiguration. This Voice says, "This is my beloved Son." The initiate registers the fact that he has been accepted by Shamballa and has made his first contact with the Planetary Logos, the Hierophant, the Initiator at the third initiation, just as the Christ, the Master of all the Masters, is the Initiator and the Hierophant at the first two initiations.

The Word, however, with which we are now dealing is not the Sacred Word itself, but a signal or sound of acceptance. It is translated in this Rule by the phrase:  Accepted as a group.  This refers to aggregates and blended combinations through which the Soul in relation to personalities, the Monad in relation to the Spiritual Triad, the Master in relation to His Ashram, and Shamballa in relation to the Hierarchy, can work, expressing plan in the initial stages of contact, and purpose in the final stages.

Bear in mind that the analogy holds true all the way through. A personality is an aggregate of forms and of substantial lives which, when fused and blended, present a unified sumtotal, animated by desire or aspiration, by plan or purpose, and functioning in its place under the inspiration of a self-initiated inner programme. Progress, from the larger angle and from the standpoint of Those Who see life in terms of ever enlarging Wholes, is from group to group.

This pronouncement, issuing from a point of tension, is the Word of the soul as it integrates with the threefold personality when that personality is consciously ready for such a fusion. The hold of the soul upon its instruments of expression, the network of the seven centres and the subsidiary centres, becomes intensified and energy pours in, forcing the acquiescent personality fully to express the ray type of the soul, and therefore subordinating the ray of the personality (and its three subsidiary rays) to the dominating soul energy. This first great integration is a fusion of force with energy. Here is a statement of deep import, embodying one of the first lessons an initiate has to master. It is one which can only be properly comprehended through life experience, subject to interpretation in the world of meaning. Some understanding of what this implies will come as the disciple masters the distinction between soul activity and the action of matter, between emotion and love, between the intelligent will and the mind, between plan and purpose. In so doing he acquires the capacity to find his point of tension at any given moment, and this growing capacity eventually brings him consciously to recognise group after group as units with which identification must be sought.

He finds his soul through the fusion of soul and personality; he finds his group through the absorption of this fusing soul-form with a Master's group, and finally he is absorbed into the Master's Ashram; there he, in concert with his group brothers in that Ashram, is fused and blended with the Hierarchy and hears the extension of the Word, spoken originally by his soul:  Accepted as a group.  Later, much later, he participates at that august recognition which comes when the Voice issues forth—as annually it does—from the centre at Shamballa and the seal is set on the acceptance of the Hierarchy, with all its new associates, by the Lord of the World. This acceptance involves those initiates of the third degree who have been integrated more closely into the hierarchical life than ever before. This is the signal to them (and to their Seniors Who have heard it year after year) that they are part of the instrument whose purpose is to fulfill the plan.  Thus the great syntheses are slowly taking place.  It has taken many aeons, for evolution (especially in the earlier stages) moves slowly.

In the post-war period and when the new structure of the coming world order is taking shape, the process will be speeded considerably; this will not, however, be for a hundred years, which is but a brief moment in the eternal history of humanity. From synthesis to synthesis the life of God passes. First the synthesis of the atomic lives into ever more perfect forms until the three kingdoms of nature appear; then the synthesis in consciousness, enabling the human being to enter into the larger awareness of the Whole and finally to enter into that mysterious event which is the result of the effect of all preceding developments and to which we give the name of Identification. From the first identification, which is the higher correspondence of the stage of individualisation, progressive absorption into ever larger wholes takes place, and each time the Word goes forth: Accepted as a group.

Have I succeeded in giving you a somewhat wider vision of the significance of initiation in these brief expositions? Do you see more clearly the growing beauty of the Whole and the goodness of the Purpose and the wisdom of the Plan? Do you realise more deeply that beauty, goodness and wisdom are not qualities, as their inadequate nomenclature would imply, but are great facts in manifestation? Do you grasp the truth that they are not descriptive of Deity but are the names of Lives of a potency and activity of which men can as yet know nothing?

Some understanding of this must slowly seep into the mind and consciousness of each disciple as that mind becomes irradiated by soul light in the earlier stages, and later responds to the impact of energy coming from the Spiritual Triad. Only when this is visioned, even if not understood, will the realisation come to the struggling disciple that the words, Withdraw not now your application. You could not if you would; but add to it three great demands and forward move, are a living command conditioning him whether he will or not. The inability to withdraw from the position taken is one of the first true results of hearing the Word spoken after passing the two tests. There is an inevitability in living the life of the Spirit which is at once its horror and its joy. I mean just that. The symbol or first expression of this (for all in the three worlds is but the symbol of an inner reality) is the driving urge to betterment which is the outstanding characteristic of the human animal.

From discontent to discontent he passes, driven by an inner something which constantly reveals to him an enticing vision of that which is more desirable than his present state and experience. At first this is interpreted by him in terms of material welfare; then this divine discontent drives him into a phase of the struggle which is emotional in nature; he craves emotional satisfaction and later intellectual pursuits. All the time this struggle to attain something ever on ahead creates the instruments of attainment, gradually perfecting them until the threefold personality is ready for a vision of the soul. From that point of tension the urge and the struggle become more acute, until Rule One for Applicants is understood by him and he steps upon the Path. Once he is an accepted disciple and has definitely undertaken the work in preparation for initiation, there is for him no turning back. He could not if he would, and the Ashram protects him.

In this Rule for accepted disciples and initiates we are faced with a similar condition on a higher turn of the spiral, but with this difference (one which you can hardly grasp unless at the point where the Word goes forth to you): that the initiate stands alone in "isolated unity," aware of his mysterious oneness with all that is. The urge which distinguished his progress in arriving at personality-soul fusion is transmuted into fixity of intention, ability to move forward into the clear cold light of the undimmed reason, free from all glamour and illusion and having now the power to voice the three demands. This he can now do consciously and by the use of the dynamic will instead of making "application in triple form" as was the case before. This distinction is vital and significant of tremendous growth and development.

The initiate has heard the Word which came forth to him when he was irrevocably committed to hierarchical purpose. He has heard the Voice from Shamballa just as he earlier heard the Voice of the Silence and the voice of his Master. Occult obedience gives place to enlightened will. He can now be trusted to walk and work alone because he is unalterably one with his group, with the Hierarchy, and finally with Shamballa.

The key to this whole Rule lies in the injunction to the initiate that he add to his application three demands, and only after they have been voiced and correctly expressed and motivated by the dynamic will, does the further injunction come that he move forward. What are these three demands, and by what right does the initiate make them? Hitherto the note of his expanding consciousness has been vision, effort, attainment and again vision. He has therefore been occupied with becoming aware of the field—an ever-increasing and expanding area—of the divine revelation. In terms of practical occultism, he is recognising an ever widening sphere wherein he can serve with purpose and forward the Plan, once he has succeeded in identifying himself with that revelation. Until this revelation is an integral part of his life it is not possible for the initiate to comprehend the significance of these simple words. Identification is realisation, plus esoteric experience, plus again an absorption into the Whole, and for all of this (as I have earlier pointed out) we have no terminology. Now a master of that which has been seen and appropriated, and being conscious of and sensing that which lies ahead, the disciple "stands on his occult rights and makes his clear demands."

What these demands are can be ascertained by remembering that all that the initiate undergoes and all that he enacts is the higher and esoteric correspondence of the triple manifestation of spirit-energy which distinguished the first and earliest phase of his unfoldment. That is the personality.

I would like to call attention to the word "unfoldment," for it is perhaps the most explicit and correct word to use anent the evolutionary process. There is no better in your language. The initiate has ever been. The divine Son of God has ever known himself for what he is. An initiate is not the result of the evolutionary process. He is the cause of the evolutionary process, and by means of it he perfects his vehicles of expression until he becomes initiate in the three worlds of consciousness and the three worlds of identification.

According to ray type this unfoldment proceeds, and each triple stage of the lower unfoldment makes possible later (in time and space) the higher unfoldment in the world of the Spiritual Triad. What I am doing in these instructions is to indicate the relation between the threefold personality and the Spiritual Triad, linked and brought together by the antahkarana. Each of these three lower aspects has its own note and it is these notes which produce the sounding forth of the three demands which evoke response from the Spiritual Triad and thus reach the Monad in its high place of waiting in Shamballa.

In 1922, in my book Letters on Occult Meditation I laid the foundation in my first chapter for the more advanced teaching which I am now giving. There I was dealing with the alignment of the ego with the personality, and this was the first time that the entire theme of alignment was brought definitely into focus, for alignment is the first step towards fusion, and later towards the mysteries of identification. Let me quote:

"As time progresses, and later with the aid of the Master, harmony of colour and tone is produced (a synonymous matter) until eventually you will have the basic note of matter, the major third of the aligned personality, the dominant fifth of the ego, followed by the full chord of the Monad or Spirit. It is the dominant we seek at adeptship, and earlier the perfected third of the personality. During our various incarnations we strike and ring the changes on all the intervening notes, and sometimes our lives are major and sometimes minor, but always they tend to flexibility and greater beauty. In due time each note fits into its chord, the chord of the Spirit; each chord forms part of a phrase, the phrase or group to which the chord belongs; and the phrase goes to the completion of one seventh of the whole. The entire seven sections, then, complete the sonata of this solar system—a part of the threefold masterpiece of the Logos or God, the Master-Musician."

We now arrive at a point which it is difficult for disciples to grasp. The initiate or disciple has reached a point in his evolution in which triplicity gives place to duality, prior to the attainment of complete unity. Only two factors are of concern to him as he "stands at the midway point," and these are Spirit and Matter. Their complete identification within his consciousness becomes his major goal, but only in reference to the whole creative process and not now in reference to the separated self. It is this thought which motivates the service of the initiate, and it is this concept of wholeness gradually creeping into the world consciousness which is indicating that humanity is on the verge of initiation. Therefore, it is the material aspect, "the perfected third of the Personality," which makes possible the activity of the initiate as he sounds out his three demands. The "dominant fifth of the ego" makes itself heard at the third initiation, marking the attainment of at-one-ment, and this fades out at the fourth initiation. At that time the egoic vehicle, the causal body, disappears. Then only two divine aspects remain; the perfected, radiant, organised and active substance through which the initiate can work in full control, the matter aspect, and the dynamic life principle, the spirit aspect, with which that "substantial divine Reality" still awaits identification. It is this thought which underlies the initiate's three demands which (according to the Rule earlier given to aspirants and disciples) must sound forth "across the desert, over all the seas and through the fires."

It is not possible for me explicitly to give an understanding of the nature of these demands. I can only give you certain symbolic phrases which, intuitively interpreted, will give you a clue.

The first demand is made possible because "the desert life is passed; it flourished and it flowered, and then the drought arrived and man removed himself. That which had nourished and contained his life became an arid waste and naught was left but bones and dust and a deep thirst which naught in sight could satisfy." Yet to the initiate consciousness it remains clear that the desert land must be made anew to flourish like a rose and that his task is the restoration (by the distribution of the waters of life) of its pristine beauty, and not the beauty of its false flowering.

He demands, therefore, upon the note of the lower aspect of the personality (I am talking in symbols), that this flowering forth should take place according to the Plan. This involves upon his part a vision of that plan, identification with the underlying purpose, and the ability—through the medium of the higher mind, which is the lowest aspect of the Spiritual Triad—to work in the world of ideas and to create those forms of thought which will aid in the materialising of the Plan in conformity with the Purpose. This is the creative work of thoughtform building and that is why, we are told, that the first great demand "sounds forth within the world of God's ideas and towards the desert, a long time left behind. Upon that great demand the initiate who has pledged himself to serve the world returns into that desert, bringing with him the seed and water for which the desert cries."

The second demand is related to the earlier cry of the disciple, which was sounded forth "over the seas." It refers to the world of glamour in which humanity struggles, and to the emotional world in which mankind is sunk as if drowning in the ocean. We are told in the Bible, and the thought is based on information to be found in the Archives of the Masters, that "there shall be no more sea"; I told you that a time comes when the initiate knows that the astral plane no longer exists. For ever it has vanished and has gone, but when the initiate has freed himself from the realm of delusion, of fog, of mist and of glamour, and stands in the "clear cold light" of the buddhic or intuitional plane (the second or middle aspect of the Spiritual Triad), he arrives at a great and basic realisation. He knows that he must return (if such a foolish word can suffice) to the "seas" which he has left behind, and there dissipate the glamour. But he works now from "the air above and in the full light of day." No longer does he struggle in the waves or sink immersed in the deep waters. Above the sea he hovers within the ocean of light, and pours that light into the depths. He carries thus the waters to the desert and the light divine into the world of fog.

Yet he never leaves the place of identification, and all that he now does is carried forward from the levels attained at any particular initiation. All that he does "upon the desert, and over the seas" is undertaken through the power of thought, which directs the needed energy and certain destined and chosen forces so that the Plan (let me repeat myself) may go forward according to divine purpose through the power of the dynamic spiritual will. When you can appreciate that the initiate of high degree works with monadic energy and not soul force, you can understand why he finds it necessary ever to work behind the scenes. He works with the soul aspect and through the power of monadic energy, using the antahkarana as a distributing agency. The disciples and initiates of the first two degrees work with soul force and through the medium of the centres. The personality works with forces.

The third great demand has in it a different implication, and sounds forth, we are told, "through the fires." In this solar system there is no evading the fire. It is found at all levels of divine expression as we well know from our study of the three fires—fire by friction, solar fire and electric fire, with their differentiations, the forty-nine fires—of the seven planes.  Always, therefore, whether it is the cry of the disciple or the demand of the initiate, the sound goes forth "through the fire, to the fire, and from the fire." Of this technique, underlying the potent demand, there is little that I may say. From the highest plane of the spiritual will, what is technically called "the atmic plane," the demand goes forth and the result of that demand will work out on mental levels, just as the earlier two demands worked out on the physical and astral levels.

I would interject here that even though there is no astral plane, from the standpoint of the Master, yet thousands of millions recognise it and labour in its delusive sphere and are there aided by the initiated disciple working from the higher corresponding levels. This is true of all the planetary work, whether accomplished by initiates and Masters, working directly in the three worlds, or from higher levels, as work the Nirmanakayas (the creative Contemplatives of the planet), or from Shamballa from the Council Chamber of the Lord of the World. All the efforts of the Hierarchy or of the "conditioning Lives" (as They are sometimes called) of Shamballa are dedicated to the furthering of the evolutionary plan which will finally embody divine purpose. I keep emphasising this distinction between plan and purpose with deliberation, because it indicates the next phase of the working of the intelligent will in the consciousness of humanity.

More anent these three demands I may not imply. I have told you much, had you the awakened intuition to read the significance of some of my comments. These demands refer not only to the evolution of humanity, but to all forms of life within the consciousness of the planetary Logos. The directing mind of the initiate indicates within the three worlds the goal of attainment.

2. Let there be no recollection and yet let memory rule.

This is not a contradictory statement. Perhaps I can convey to you the right idea as follows:  The initiate wastes no time in looking backward towards the lessons learned; he works from the angle of developed habit, instinctively doing the right and needed thing. Instinctual response to environing forms builds, as we well know, patterns of behaviour, of conduct and of reaction. This establishes what might be called unconscious memory, and this memory rules without any effort at recollection.

The habit of goodness, or right reaction and of instinctual understanding is distinctive of the trained initiate. He has no need to remember rules, theories, planes or activities. These are as much an established part of his nature as the instinct of self-preservation is an instinctive part of the equipment of a normal human being. Think this out and endeavour to build up the right spiritual habits. In this way the Master wastes no time on soul or personal plans. He has the habit—based on divine instinctual memory—of right activity, right understanding and right purpose. He needs not to recollect.

3. Work from the point of all that is within the content of the group's united life.

This is not, as might appear, the effort to do the work for humanity as it is planned or desired by the group with which the initiate finds himself associated. The mode of working covers an earlier phase and one in which the accepted disciple learns much. First, he finds a group upon the physical plane whose ideals and plans for service conform to his idea of correct activity, and with this group he affiliates himself, works, learns, and in learning, suffers much. Later he finds his way into a Master's Ashram, where his effort is increasingly to learn to use the will in carrying out the Plan and to accommodate himself to the group methods and plans, working under the law of occult obedience for the welfare of humanity.

The initiate, however, works in neither of these ways, though he has acquired the habit of right contact with organisations in the three worlds and right cooperation with the Hierarchy. He works now under the inspiration of and identification with the life aspect—the united life aspect of his ray group and of all groups. This means that the significance of the involutionary life and the evolutionary life is fully understood by him. His service is invoked by the group or groups needing his help. His response is an occult evocation given in unison with the group of servers with which he is affiliated on the inner side. This is a very different thing to the mode of service generally understood.

24. RULE THREE

The next Rule continues the above theme and gives some instructions in terse phrases and symbols on the Science of Invocation and Evocation and its significant ritual or programme. This programme is, in reality, an expression or a human formulation of the Science of Sound, just in so far—as yet—as Sound affects humanity and human affairs. Forget not my earlier teaching upon the Word; remember also that the Sound is the sound or note of Life Itself, embodying its dynamic impulse, its creative power, and its responsive sensitivity to all contacts.

Rule III

Dual the moving forward. The Door is left behind. That is a happening of the past. Let the cry of invocation issue forth from the deep centre of the group's clear cold light. Let it evoke response from the bright centre, lying far ahead. When the demand and the response are lost in one great Sound, move outward from the desert, leave the seas behind, and know that God is Fire.

This is perhaps one of the two most occult rules which the initiate has to master, whether as an individual or in conjunction with his group. The group recognises and works under the pervasive influence of the purpose; the individual initiate works with the plan. The group expression, as far as in it lies at any given moment in time and space, is in line with the will of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being, the Life of all that is. The individual initiate uses the attractive force (to which we give the oft misleading name of love) of that fundamental Life to gather together that which will give body to form and so manifest the will. The group can be, and frequently is, responsive to the "bright centre," Shamballa, where the initiate by himself and in his own essential identity cannot so respond. The individual must be protected by the group from the terrific potencies which emanate from Shamballa. These must be stepped down for him by the process of distribution, so that their impact is not focussed in any one or all of his centres but is shared by all the group members. Here is the clue to the significance of group work. One of its major functions, esoterically speaking, is to absorb, share, circulate, and then distribute energy.

This process of protection and of distribution is one of the functions of the great meeting of all the Hierarchy, under the aegis of the three Great Lords (the Manu, the Mahachohan and the Christ) in that high and sacred valley in the Himalayas where annually—after due preparation—the Hierarchy makes contact with Shamballa and a relationship is then set up between the "bright and living centre" and the "radiating and magnetic centre," in order that the "acquiescent waiting centre" may be stimulated to move forward upon the ladder of evolution. Even the Hierarchy itself needs the protection of its full membership in order rightly to absorb the incoming energies, and later wisely to distribute the forces of the divine will in the three worlds where lies Their major responsibility. The focussed will of God, in its immediate implications and application, constitutes the point of tension from which Shamballa works in order to bring about the eventual fruition of the divine Purpose.

There is a definite distinction between Purpose and Will; it is subtle indeed, but quite definite to the advanced initiate, and therefore the dualistic nature of our planetary manifestation and our solar Expression appear even in this. The Members of the Council at Shamballa recognise this distinction and therefore divide Themselves into two groups which are called in the ancient parlance, Registrants of the Purpose and Custodians of the Will. Will is active. Purpose is passive, waiting for the results of the activity of the will. These two groups are reflected in hierarchical circles by the Nirmanakayas or the Planetary Contemplatives, and the Custodians of the Plan. The function of the Registrants of the Purpose is to keep the channel open between our Earth, the planet Venus and the Central Spiritual Sun. The function of the Custodians of the Will is to relate the Council, the Hierarchy and Humanity, thus creating a basic triangle of force between the three major centres of the planetary Life. This is the higher expression (symbolic, if you like) of the six-pointed star, formed of two interlaced triangles. A replica of this fundamental triangle and of this symbol of energy, with its inflow and distribution, is to be found in the relation of the three higher centres in the human being—head, heart and throat—to the three lower centres—solar plexus, sacral centre and the centre at the base of the spine. The Science of Invocation and Evocation is also seen to be symbolically proceeding along evolutionary lines.

Worship, the attitude of the mystic, must give place to Invocation in the man who knows he is divine. This symbolic revelation is to be seen in the lifting up of the three lower energies and their evocative response to the three higher, thus producing an eventual unity at the point of tension. I realise that this is a hard thing to comprehend because it embodies truths which are difficult for the disciple to grasp. But they will be grasped and mastered by each one as he proceeds along the Path of Discipleship and submits to the needed training for initiation. They will also be mastered, later in this century and in the next, by the rapidly developing humanity, thus demonstrating that the initiation of the moment becomes the past achievement of the masses eventually. This enhanced liberation will later appear as a definite result of the war. The Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms, formulated in the tension produced by the world agony and strain, are the reflections of this, and embody all that it is possible for average materially-minded man to grasp of the present will of Shamballa as it conditions the plans of the Hierarchy and is impulsed by the Registrants of the Purpose. This is as far as the two groups of Custodians have been able to convey this revelation to the best human intellects—the first group dealing with the senior members of the Hierarchy and the latter with those initiates and disciples who are closely related to humanity.

Here again we come up against the fact that the Science of Invocation and Evocation, with which this Rule fundamentally deals, is primarily a great and scientific activity of which modern humanity knows practically nothing, but which is related to thought power and to thoughtform building. Only initiates of the highest degree—such as the three Great Lords—have the right to invoke alone and unaccompanied by any protective agency, such as a group, and the reason for that is that They Themselves are members of the Council at Shamballa and are individually Registrants of the Purpose. The annual appearance of the Lord Buddha is the outer demonstration or symbol of the emergence of this Science of Invocation and Evocation in the waking consciousness of humanity. Prayer is the dim, faint and inadequate expression of this; affirmation of divinity in order to gain material well-being is a distortion of this truth. This needs to be remembered. The true significance of this emerging science is that, in the early or first stages, it embodies the seed concept of the new world religion.

In the great invocations which I have given out, the first one, "Let the Forces of Light bring illumination to mankind..." was an effort on my part to put into words the invocative cry of mankind and of all men and women of goodwill throughout the world. Its success was indicative of the strength of that goodwill. The second, "Let the Lords of Liberation issue forth...") can, in reality, only be used with any measure or hope of success by aspirants, disciples and initiates, and hence was not nearly so popular with the general public, though in reality much more powerful and potentially effective. It was essential, however, that a fusion of the two groups should take place before the invocative cry of humanity as a whole could be powerful and effective in evoking response. (Externalization of the Hierarchy)

Prior to taking up the study, phrase by phrase, of Rule III, I would call your attention to the relation between this Rule and the earlier one given to applicants. The applicant sends out his cry—across the desert, over all the seas and through the fires. His entire personality, integrated and oriented, is focussed at a point of tension; then he utters his cry (symbolic of a voiceless expression) and this cry beats against the door which separates him from the soul, in the first instance, and from the Hierarchy, in the second. The door is only a symbol of separation; it divides one place from another location, one sphere of activity from another, and one state of consciousness from another. It fosters in the aspirant a sense of duality. It is a word descriptive of the mystic attitude. This attitude embraces the concepts of here and there, of soul and body, of God and man, of Hierarchy and humanity. But Rule III, as voiced for initiates, demonstrates that this mystical realisation finally goes; the sense of separation disappears, and the door is left behind.

1. Dual the moving forward. The Door is left behind. That is a happening of the past.

The first point which should be noted is that we have here the definition of an initiate. He is one who, in his two-fold nature (soul and personality), moves forward. No longer is his point of tension that of the personality. He has fused and blended two divine aspects in himself, and they now constitute one integrated unit. This fusion produces its own point of tension.  He has moved forward through the door. A point of tension again ensues in which a Word goes forth in response to the invocative cry of the new initiate. A Word is returned to him:  Accepted as a group.  Then he, with the group of which he is now a recognised part, moves forward. For the initiate (as I have earlier pointed out) the past is left behind: "Let there be no recollection"; the present embodies a point of tension; the future indicates a moving forward from that point of tension as a result of its effective action.

The door closes behind the initiate, who is now an accepted member of his group, and as the Old Commentary puts it, "its sound in closing informs the watching world that the initiate has passed into a secret place and that to reach him in the real sense they too must pass that door." This conveys the thought of individual self-initiation, to which all must be subjected, and indicates also the loneliness of the initiate as he moves forward. He does not yet understand all that his group as a whole grasps; he is himself not understood by those on the other side of the door. He has sensed for some time the group with which he is now affiliated, and is becoming increasingly aware of their spiritual impersonality, which seems to him to be almost a form of aloofness and which in no way feeds in him those elements which are of a personality nature; he therefore suffers. Those left behind as a part of his old life in no way comprehend his basic (even if undeveloped) impersonality. This attitude of theirs evokes in him, when sensed, a resentment and a criticism which he realises is not right but which at this stage he seems unable to avoid, whilst those he criticises endeavour to tear him down or (at the least) to make him feel despised and uncomfortable.

In the early stages he takes refuge from those left behind by withdrawing himself and by much unnecessary and almost obtrusive silence. He learns to penetrate into the consciousness of his new group by strenuously endeavouring to develop their capacity for spiritual impersonality. He knows it is something which he must achieve and—as he achieves it—he discovers that this impersonality is not based on indifference or upon preoccupation, as he had thought, but upon a deep understanding, upon a dynamic focus on world service, upon a sense of proportion and upon a detachment which makes true help possible. Thus the door and the past are left behind. St. Paul attempted to express this idea when he said: "Forgetting the things which are behind, press forward towards the prize of your high calling in Christ." I would ask your attention to the word "calling."

2. Let the cry of invocation issue forth from the deep centre of the group's clear cold light.

We are not here dealing with the light in the head or with soul light as it is perceived by the attuned and aligned personality. That too is left behind, and the initiate is aware of the light of the Ashram and the all-including light of the Hierarchy.  These are two aspects of soul light which the individual light in the head has revealed. That soul light which the initiate has been aware of from the first moment of soul contact, and at rapidly decreasing intervals, is created by the fusion of the light of the soul with the light of substance itself, and is the inevitable and automatic consequence of the purification of the three vehicles and of creative meditation. We are told in the world Scriptures that "in that light shall we see Light"; and it is to this other Light that I now refer—a light which is only to be perceived when the door is shut behind the initiate. That light is itself composed of the light of buddhi and the light of atma, and these are (to interpret these Sanskrit terms esoterically) the light of the pure reason, which is the sublimation of the intellect, and the light of the spiritual will, which is the revelation of the enfolding purpose.  The first is focussed in the Ashram, and the second in the Hierarchy as a whole, and both of them are the expression of the activity of the Spiritual Triad.

Let me make myself clearly understood, if possible. You have, therefore, three great lights, all of them focussed upon the mental plane, for beyond that plane the symbolism of light is not used; divinity is known as life, where the Monad and its expression, the Spiritual Triad, are concerned.

All the lights are finally focussed upon the mental plane:

1. The blended light of soul and personality.

2. The light of the egoic group which, when forming a recognised group in the consciousness of the illumined initiate, is called an Ashram, embodying the light of buddhi or pure reason.

3. The light of the Hierarchy as a centre of radiance in the planetary body and embodying the light which understanding of the plan and cooperation with that plan produce, and which comes from identification—upon mental levels—with the spiritual will.

All these three aspects of light can be described as:

1. The light which is thrown upward. This is the lesser light, from the angle of the Monad.

2. The light which the Spiritual Triad reflects upon the mental plane.

3. The focussed light which is produced by the meeting of the two lights, the higher and the lower.

These are the higher correspondence of the blazing forth of the light in the head, when the light of the personality and the light of the soul make contact. Beyond the mental plane, the initiatory impulse or emphasis is upon the life aspect, upon dynamic energy, and upon the cause of manifestation, and this incentive to progress is not based on revelation, which is ever incident to or related to the significance of light. Light and revelation are cause and effect. The coming revelation for which all men wait, and which will come when world adjustment has reached an already determined point, is concerned with the impartation to the human consciousness of the meaning and purpose of life; this will take place in a gradually unfolding series of spiritual events.

I cannot and must not put these truths more clearly, even if the necessary words were available to express what is not as yet even dimly sensed by disciples of the first and second degrees of initiation. What will come through that series of spiritual happenings and their inevitable reaction upon the whole body of humanity is in no way related to consciousness, to revelation or to light. There will come to humanity at some moment still a long way ahead a period of realisation, constituting both a point of crisis and a point of tension. That realisation will summarise, in effective conditioning consciousness, all that the quality of sensitivity has conveyed to mankind throughout the ages. It is the consummation of the activity of the Christ-consciousness, and is the state referred to when it is said of the Christ: "He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied."

At the crisis of that revelation, at its highest point of tension, humanity as with one voice will say: "Behold! All things are become new." This is the apotheosis of vision and the prelude to an unfoldment in the general massed human consciousness (from that point in time slowly brought about) of certain powers and capacities of which the race is today totally unaware. The immediate revelation ahead will be only the first step towards this distant related point, and its significance will not be apparent to the present generation, or even to the next; it will, however, be steadily though gradually appreciated as the new world religion with its emphasis upon the invocation of energies and the evocation of "life more abundantly" is developed and has its inevitable effect. Students would do well to bear in mind that the impact of energies upon forms produces results which are dependent upon the quality of the forms receiving the impression. This is a statement of occult law.

It must be remembered that the Science of Invocation and Evocation is a reciprocal effort. Humanity could not be invocative were it not that the Spiritual Hierarchy (and by that term I include both Shamballa and the planetary Hierarchy) is evoking the spirit of man. The invocative cry of humanity is evoked by the invocation or Sound of the spiritual hierarchies. Man's responsibility, however, is to invoke at this time the Lords of Liberation and the Spirit of Peace.  These are the Beings which have the power to raise humanity, once the race of men has assumed the right attitude. They correspond to the group, in the third degree of Masonry, who raise the Master. Their response to the cry of mankind is largely, but not wholly, dependent upon the quality of that cry.

I wonder if I could make the problem of invocation clearer to you if I were to suggest that the words, "issue forth from the deep centre of the group's clear cold light," have a meaning both for the individual initiate and for all groups of disciples and all Ashrams? The use of the words, "clear cold light," is deeply symbolical. The clarity of that light indicates the function of the soul, as its great light enables the initiate to see light. The coldness of that light refers to the light of substance, which cannot be warmed into a glow by desire or by the heat of passion, but is now and at last only responsive to the light of the soul. It is therefore cold to all that limits and hinders, and this state of personality consciousness has to be realised at the very centre of man's being; there the clear light of the soul and the cold light of the personality are united in the deepest conscious point of the disciple's nature, at the extreme point of withdrawal (for which all concentration exercises and meditation processes have been a scientific preparation). Then, through the produced tension, the invocative cry can go forth with power and effectiveness. The same is true of the disciple's group or of any group of true and selfless aspirants. There can come a moment in the life of the group when the blended cold light of the contributing personalities and the clear light of their souls can so function that united invocative cry will evoke a response. That cry will ever be concerned with the selfless service of the group—a service which, under the Plan, they are seeking to render to humanity.

Certain great concepts are firmly grasped by man. Certain great hopes are taking form and will become the pattern of man's living. Certain great speculations will become experimental theories and later prove demonstrated facts.

Behind all this, two things are happening: Men are being stimulated and brought to that point of necessary tension which (as a result of a crisis) must precede a great moving forward upon the Path of Evolution.

Secondly, a process of reorientation is going on which will eventually enable the mass of men to present a united front upon views hitherto regarded as the vague visions of intelligent and optimistic dreamers. A great stirring and moving is going on. The world of men is seething in response to the inflow of spiritual energy. This energy has been evoked by the unrealised and inaudible cry of humanity itself. Humanity has become—for the first time in its history—spiritually invocative.

Let us now consider briefly the nature of that which is being evoked, and thus gain an insight into the interrelation which exists between the three great planetary centres: The human centre, the hierarchical centre, and Shamballa. Each of these is evocative to the one functioning at a slower or lesser speed (if I might use such inappropriate terms) and invocative to the one above it—again using a form of words which is misleading in the extreme; there is no higher or lower and no greater or lesser in our universe of reality.  There is only the interpenetration of substances which are all basically expressions of matter, and their vitalisation and organisation into forms of expression of the unknown Real. This essential Reality, we call spirit or life.

As a result of the interplay of these two, humanity eventually appears in time and space. Humanity is the result of all sub-human forms of expression and experience and of the activity of superhuman Beings. These superhuman Beings are the product of past evolutionary systems and are in Themselves the sum total of the great Divine Sacrifice as it focusses itself in our planetary life. Having passed through all previous phases of existence and perfected the consciousness aspect in Themselves through human experiences, They have transcended all that men can know and all states of consciousness with which he is or may be in the future familiar, and are now expressing a phase of divinity of which he can know naught. They LIVE. They are energy itself, and in Their totality They form the "bright centre lying far ahead."

3. Let it evoke response from the bright centre, lying far ahead.

To this centre we give the name Shamballa, the component letters of which are numerically: S.H.A.M.B.A.L.L.A. or 1.8.1.4.2.1.3.3.1. This word equals the number 24 which in its turn equals 6. I would call your attention to the fact that the word has in it nine letters, and—as you know—nine is the number of initiation. The goal of all the initiatory process is to admit mankind into realisation of and identification with the will or purpose of Deity. The number 6 is the number of form or of manifestation, which is the agent or medium through which this realisation comes and by which the consciousness is unfolded so that it can become the foundation of the higher process which is instituted at the third initiation. That initiation is closely related to the third major centre, Shamballa; it is the third, from the angle of man's perception and understanding, but the first from the angle of Deity Itself. Again, 6 being the number of the sixth ray, it is therefore the number of idealism and of that driving force which makes mankind move forward upon the path and in response to the vision and press upward towards the light. It is in reality devotion to an unseen goal, ever on ahead, and an unswerving recognition of the objective.

Like all other divine qualities, it has its material counterpart, and that is why 666 is regarded as the number of the Beast or of materialism, the number of the dominance of the three worlds prior to the process of reorientation and the expression of developed idealism and purpose. The third aspect expresses itself through pure materialism, and hence the three sixes. In an ancient book on numbers the initiate is defined as "the one who has experienced and expressed 666 and found it naught; who has dropped the 6 and become the 66, and thus has found himself upon the WAY; later, again, he drops the 6 and becomes the perfected 6—form, the instrument and expression of spirit."

The number 24 is of deep interest, expressing as it does the double 12—the greater and the lesser zodiac. Just as the number 6 expresses space, so the number 24 expresses time, and is the key to the great cycle of manifestation.  It is the clue to all cyclic appearance or incarnation.  Its two figures define the method of evolution; 2 equals the quality of love-wisdom, working under the Law of Attraction and drawing man from one point of attainment to another; whilst 4 indicates the technique of conflict and the achieving of harmony through that conflict; 4 is also the number of the human hierarchy, and 2 is the number of the spiritual hierarchy.  Technically speaking, until the third initiation, the initiate is "occupied with the relationship of the 2 and the 4; these, when placed side by side, connote relation; and when placed the one above the other, the initiate passes from the 4 into the 2." Needless to say, there is much more to say anent these figures, but the above will suffice to show the satisfactory nature of esoteric numerology—not numerology as understood today.

I would have you note that the sounds which compose the word "Shamballa" are predominantly along the line of will or power or of first ray energy. Of the nine letters, six are on the first ray line of force. 1.1.1.3.3.1.—spirit and matter, will and intelligence. Two of them are along the second line of force, 4 and 2. The number 8 inaugurates ever a new cycle, following after the number 7, which is that of a relative perfection. It is the number of the Christ-consciousness; just as 7 is the number of man, 8 is the number of the Hierarchy, and 9 is the number of initiation or of Shamballa. Forget not that, from the angle of the Hierarchy, the third initiation is regarded as the first major initiation.

These preliminary remarks are intended to convey much esoteric information to those who realise that number gives the clue to the form and purpose of the life which the form veils. At the third major initiation, the third planetary initiation (which is in fact the first solar initiation), the liberated disciple for the first time—alone and unaided—invokes the highest spiritual centre on our planet, Shamballa. This he does because, for the first time, consciously and with understanding, he registers the life aspect (which has brought his soul into action through the medium of form) and vibrates to the Monad. That registration enables him to contact "the bright centre, lying far ahead," to blend his individual will with the divine will, and to cooperate with the purpose aspect of manifestation. He has learnt to function through form; he has become aware, as a soul, of the divine form in its many aspects and differentiations; he now starts off upon the way of the higher unfoldment, of which the first step is contact with Shamballa, involving the fusion of his self-will and his spiritual will with the Will of God.

At the third initiation he stands before the One Initiator, the Lord of the World, and "sees His star shine forth" and hears the sound which—to quote the Old Commentary: "...pours forth from that central point of power where substance and the outer life have met together, where spirit utters loud the cry which drew the form to meet the highest need; where energy comes forth and blends with force and (in the blending) music had its start within the sphere of blending and of being thus created. Man only hears the distant sound and knows it not for what it is. The disciple hears the sound and sees its form. The one who stands for the third time upon the mountain top hears a clear note and knows it as his own, as ours, as yours, and yet the note which none have sounded forth."

4. When the demand and the response are lost in one great Sound, move outward from the desert, leave the seas behind and know that God is Fire.

This means more than its obvious significance. Superficially it can mean that when the initiate hears the Sound, he leaves behind the desert life of physical incarnation, the emotional life of the astral plane, seething and unstable as the sea, and functions on the plane of mind, of which the symbol is fire. That is the most elementary and obvious meaning, and as this section of A Treatise on the Seven Rays is written for those with initiate understanding, the obvious interpretation will not prove satisfactory. The meaning must be broader and deeper. The words "outward from the desert" have application for the entire life of the incarnated Monad in the three worlds of human endeavour and enterprise. "Leaving the sea behind" has reference to the withdrawal of the initiate from all sensuous experience because, as I have pointed out, the state of consciousness or awareness is superseded when the higher initiations are taken and their place is filled by a state of being for which we have no word but the unsatisfactory one of identification. This state of being is something very different to consciousness as you understand it. The phrase therefore means (if such a misleading form of words can be justifiably used) that the initiate leaves consciousness itself behind and the five worlds of life expression are transcended; at the third initiation the initiate grasps what is meant when the One in Whom we live and move and have our being (note that expression) is referred to as Fire. I elaborated this theme in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire—a book which evades understanding by all except those with initiate consciousness. Fire is the sumtotal of that which destroys form, produces complete purity in that which is not itself, generates the warmth which lies behind all growth, and is vitality itself.

This initiate realisation is all brought about by the sudden appreciation or apprehension of sound, by the awakening of the inner ear to the significance of the Voice, just as the disciple in the earlier stage awakened to the significance of vision. That is why, at the third initiation, the initiate sees the star and hears the sound. At the first two initiations, he sees the light and hears the Word; but this is something different and is the higher correspondence to the earlier experience. It will be obvious that I can say no more upon this subject.

It is essential, however, that some knowledge begin to reach the public anent the highest spiritual centre to which (as the Gospel story intimates) Christ Himself was attentive. Frequently we read in the New Testament that "the Father spoke to Him," that "He heard a voice," and that the seal of affirmation (as it is occultly called) was given to Him. Only the Father, the planetary Logos, the Lord of the World, enunciates the final affirmative sound.  This has no reference—when it occurs—to the earlier initiations, but only to the final ones.

There are five obvious crises of initiation which concern the Master Jesus as step by step He took or re-enacted the five initiations. But lying behind this obvious and practical teaching, lies an undercurrent or thread of higher revelation. This is concerned with the realisations of the overshadowing Christ as He registered the Voice which is heard at the third, fifth, sixth and seventh initiations. The Gospel story gives us the five Initiations of the Master Jesus, beginning with the first and ending with the fifth. But it also gives the initiations of the Christ, starting from the second and ending with the seventh. The latter is left incomplete, and the Voice is not recorded, because at the Resurrection and Ascension we are not told of the hearing of the affirmative sound. That will be heard when the Christ completes His work at the time of the Second Coming.

Then the great seventh initiation, which is a dual one (love-wisdom in full manifestation motivated by power and will), will be consummated, and the Buddha and the Christ will together pass before the Lord of the World, together see the glory of the Lord, and together pass to higher service of a nature and calibre unknown to us.

In this connection it is wise to remember that three great energies are focussed in Shamballa, the seat of fire:

1. The Energy of Purification: This is the power, innate in the manifested universe, which gradually and steadily adapts the substance aspect to the spiritual by a process which we call purification, where humanity is concerned. It involves the elimination of all that hinders the nature of divinity from full expression, and this again from inherent or latent capacity. This necessitates the leaving behind, stage after stage, cycle after cycle, life after life, and plane after plane, of every tendency in the form nature which veils or hides the glory of God. It is essentially the energy which substitutes good for evil. Human thinking has debased this concept so that purification is related mainly to physical phenomena and physical plane life and to a selfish idealism which is largely based on the thought of the sanitary care of substance. An enforced celibacy and a rigid vegetarianism are familiar instances of this, and these physical disciplines have been put in the place of emotional loveliness, mental clarity, intuitional illumination, and the thoughts of the aspirant become focussed downwards into matter and not outwards and upwards into light.

2. The Energy of Destruction:  This is a destruction which removes the forms which are imprisoning the inner spiritual life, and hiding the inner soul light. This energy is therefore one of the major aspects of the purificatory nature of the divine Life, and that is the reason why I have put purification ahead of destruction. It is the destroying aspect of life itself, just as there is a destructive agency in matter itself. Two things must be borne in mind in connection with the destroyer aspect of Deity and with those responsible for its appearance:

1. The destructive activity is set in motion through the will of Those Who constitute the Council at Shamballa and Who are instrumental in bringing the forms in all the subhuman kingdoms into line with the evolving purpose. Under cyclic law, this destructive energy comes into play and destroys the forms of life which prevent divine expression.

2. It is also brought into activity through the determinations of humanity itself which—under the Law of Karma—makes man the master of his own destiny, leading him to initiate those causes which are responsible for the cyclic events and consequences in human affairs.

There is naturally a close connection between the first Ray of Will or Power, the energies concentrated at Shamballa and the Law of Karma, particularly in its planetary potency and in relation to advanced humanity. It will be apparent, therefore, that the more rapidly the individual aspirant approaches the third initiation, the more rapidly and directly will the individual's karma be worked out. Monadic relation, as it becomes established, lets loose the destructive aspect of the basic energy, and all hindrances are destroyed with expedition. This is true also of humanity as a whole. Two factors have, subjectively and spiritually, precipitated this world crisis: The growth and development of the human family and (as you have been told) the inflow of the Shamballa force at this particular time, both as a result of Karmic law and the planned decision of the Great Council.

3. The Energy of Organisation: This is the energy which set in motion the activity of the great Ray Lives and started the motivation and impulse of that which produced manifestation. Thus were the seven ray qualities brought into expression. The relation of spirit and matter produced this ordered process which again, cyclically and under law, creates the manifested world as a field for soul development and as an area wherein divine purpose is wrought out through the medium of the plan. Again I call your attention to the distinction existing between purpose and plan. This is the aspect, emanating from Shamballa, and inherent also in form (as are the other two), which eventually relates the human will, through the right use of the mind, to the organised planning of his separate and individual life in the three worlds, and which eventually relates and reorients that will to the Will of God.

These three energies are faintly symbolised for us in the life of Christ when overshadowing the Master Jesus, two thousand years ago. The purificatory aspect of the monadic force is indicated at the Baptism episode; secondly, the destroyer aspect can be seen expressing itself at the time of the Crucifixion, when it rent the veil of the Temple from the top to the bottom. The episode which indicates the energy of organisation and the relation of the spiritual will of the Christ to the purpose and the will of the Father appears when He said, in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Not my will but Thine be done." This final episode is closely related to the consciously expressed will of the Christ Child when He realised in the Temple that He must be about His Father's business and that His will was to do the will and fulfill the purpose of the Father, the Monad and the One of Whom the Monad is the expression.

It is these three energies which have precipitated the world crisis, and it is helpful for us to recognise the factual nature of the Shamballa forces as they play upon our planetary life and work out human destiny. The great energy of purification is regenerating humanity, and of this the widespread fires which have been such an outstanding characteristic of this war (1914-1945) are the outward and visible sign. Much evil is being burnt out through the revelation of the appalling character of that evil, and through this, unity is being produced. Mankind has looked upon evil in every land and known it to be wrought by men. Men have seen, and that sight will never be forgotten, and the horror thus engendered will aid in stiffening the will of humanity to betterment. The energy of destruction has its side of beauty when the spiritual values are grasped. That which has so grossly imprisoned the human spirit is disappearing; the rocky grave of humanity is breaking open and releasing men to a life of resurrection. Forget not that in the interim between the tomb experience and the appearance in living form to His disciples, the Master Jesus went down into hell (figuratively speaking), carrying release for those to be found there. There will be an interim between the darkness of the war with the evil history of the past, and the appearance of a living civilisation and culture based on the spiritual values and intelligently developing the divine purpose. The stage is now being set for this.

The Crucifixion and the tomb experience lead eventually to resurrection and to life. The destruction is appalling, but it is only the destruction of the form side of manifestation in this particular cycle, and (a point which I would beg you not to forget) it is the destruction of much planetary evil, focussed for aeons in humanity as a whole and brought to the surface and precipitated into violent activity by a group of evil men whose destiny it was. This destiny was the result of their own deliberate choice, and of prolonged cycles of purely material selfishness.

I would ask all aspirants and disciples to ponder upon the destructive purpose of God—a purpose which is motivated by love, guided by a balanced judgment as to form, and which cherishes and fosters the life and its resultant spiritual values.

There is an inherent destructive energy in matter itself and an energy of very great potency; it is with this energy that the Axis Powers are working. The destructive energy, emanating from "the bright centre," Shamballa, is something very different, and I would ask you to remember this. The destroying power of spirit is not the same as that of matter. A human being destroys his own form again and again through the evil which he does and by the material focus of his desires; the following of a life of vice will breed disease, as is well known.

The disciple can also destroy his form nature through selfless service and devotion to a cause. In both cases the form is destroyed, but the motivating impulse is different and the energy of destruction comes from different sources. The death of a Master Jesus or of a Father Damien, and the death of a Hitler or of a murderer, are not the result of the same essential energies.

When the din of battle and the smoke and fire of bombing and the cruel effects on human bodies have faded into the past, it will be apparent to the understanding aspirant that much evil has been destroyed in all fields of human activity—in the field of theological religion, in the field of politics, and in the field of selfish economic competition. It will be for humanity then to precipitate and stabilise the appearing good, and this they will learn to do through the utilisation of the third Shamballa energy— the energy of organisation.

The new world will be built upon the ruins of the old. The new structure will rise. Men of goodwill everywhere, under the guidance of the New Group of World Servers, will organise themselves into battalions of life, and their first major task must be the development of right human relations, through the education of the masses. This means the paralleling development of an enlightened public opinion, which is (speaking esoterically) right response to the sound which conveys the will of God to the ears of the attentive. Then humanity will indeed move outward from the desert, leave the seas behind, and know that God is Fire.

25. RULE FOUR

At the time of the June Full Moon, each year, the love of God, the spiritual essence of solar fire, reaches its highest point of expression. This it achieves through the instrumentality of the Hierarchy, that great group of souls which has ever been the custodian of the principle of light, of enlightened love, and which always—down the ages—focusses its attention upon the race of men when the spiritual influence is at its height. This it does through one of the great Sons of God. The Full Moon of June of 1943 saw this outpouring of divine love reach its highest expression for all time, and at the point of attainment which is, for that particular Son of God, His highest also. Such is the Law. When an embodied Christ in time and space reaches His goal of achievement, recognition of this comes to Him at the time of the June Full Moon, for in that sign of Gemini the complete victory of life over form, and of spirit over matter, is consummated and celebrated.

The love of God, focussed in the Christ, seeks to express itself in some act of peculiarly useful service to humanity. This service has taken different forms down through the ages, but it has always expressed itself through two episodes: One of them, the first, reveals the Christ in His capacity of the God-Saviour, sacrificing Himself through pure love for His fellowmen. The annals of the Hierarchy contain many such histories of sacrifice and service, dating far back into the very night of time. The saving principle of pure love finds its expression at the hour of humanity's greatest need in the work of a World Saviour and "for the salvation of His people, He comes forth." He thus meets the need, and at the same time strengthens the link which relates the Hierarchy to Humanity. The task of the Christ (as the expression in time and space of the second divine aspect) is to establish relationships. Every cyclic Representative of Deity furthers the approach of the Hierarchy to mankind, and seals this service by some final act which becomes the historical nucleus whereby later generations remember Him.

That accomplished, He stays with His people as Head of the Hierarchy until His second opportunity comes, in which as Representative both of Humanity and the Hierarchy, He can relate them both to Shamballa. This He does through a great act of evocation, seeking to bring about a closer relationship between all the three great planetary centres: Shamballa, the Hierarchy, and Humanity. He can do this because the development of the Wisdom aspect in His nature makes it possible. The major linking agent in the universe is the energy of Love-Wisdom. Love relates the Hierarchy to Humanity, and Wisdom relates the Hierarchy to Shamballa. Only when Humanity and the Hierarchy are working together in a practical synthesis, can the Shamballa energy be permitted complete inflow through the medium of the two other centres.

To aid in this process of gradual perfecting and an eventual bringing about of a complete alignment, the help of the Buddha must be invoked and accepted. The work of the Christ as God-Saviour can be carried forward by Him alone and unaided. The work of the Christ as God the Preserver needs the united work, as yet, of the two highest Representatives of the second divine aspect when present together upon the Earth, as is the case today of both the Buddha and the Christ. This is the first cycle in the history of humanity when this has been the case. One or the other has been present down the ages, but not the two simultaneously. The reason for this is that the time has now been reached when Shamballa can be contacted and its energy evoked. Hence we have the activity of the Buddha at the May Full Moon and that of the Christ at the following June Full Moon. Their united activity serves to bring about a much closer approach between the Lord of the World and the Hierarchy, via His four Representatives: the Buddha, the Christ, the Manu, and the Mahachohan—the five points of energy which are creating the five-pointed star of Humanity at this time.

An ancient rule—Rule IV for Applicants gives us in perfect wording the nature of the urge which prompts the present activity of the Christ. He has accomplished His task as God the Saviour. The fourth Rule, as it is given to all applicants and probationary disciples, gives His work the following definition:

Let the disciple tend the evocation of the fire,

nourish the lesser lives and thus keep the wheel revolving.

It is given in this short form to all who are approaching the Path, in order to convey to them with the utmost brevity and beauty the nature of the life of the Head of the Hierarchy, the Initiator Whom they must face at the time of the first and second initiations, and upon Whose activities they—as individual aspirants—must learn to model their lives. Only today is it possible to present that work in other terms than those which emphasise the part the Christ plays in the salvaging of man.

It is now possible, however, to present His true and wider task, because man's sense of proportion, his recognition of others, his growing sense of responsibility, his power to suffer for the good, the beautiful and true, his appropriation of the vision, and his point in evolution warrant a truer picture which—if adequately grasped—will enable the disciple to comprehend the requirements of Rule IV as given for disciples and initiates. Only as they grasp the nature of the work of Christ, after His final act of service as God-Saviour, can they understand the nature of group service and begin to pattern their lives and natures so as to meet similar requirements in group formation.

This has become possible because of the point in the evolutionary process which the Hierarchy has attained. The attitude and position of the members of the Hierarchy are not static. All are moving forward. The Christ Who came two thousand years ago embodied in Himself not only the principle of love in the planetary sense (a thing which Shri Krishna had achieved), but a cosmic principle of love also, and this for the first time in human history. His achievement was made possible by the fact that the human family had reached a point at which it could produce the perfect Man, Christ, the "eldest in a great family of brothers," a Son of God, the Word made flesh. The future progress of humanity is also aided and hastened because of the attainment and activity of the Christ, and because He remains with us as God the Preserver.

His task today is threefold, and the Rule states in very simple language these three aspects of His divine activity or phases of His work. These are:

1. He "tends the evocation of the fire." His major task as Head of the Hierarchy is to evoke the electric fire of Shamballa, the energy of the divine Will, and this in such a form that the Hierarchy can be drawn nearer to the source of Life, and Humanity can consequently profit by this hierarchical Approach and know eventually the meaning of the words "life more abundantly." Christ's evocation of the fire of the will was initiated symbolically in the Garden of Gethsemane. He has twice symbolically shown  His individual response to the Shamballa energy: Once in the Temple of Jerusalem as a child, and again in the Garden as a full grown man at the close of His earthly career. His third and final response (which climaxes His work from our human angle) covers nine years, from the Full Moon of June, 1936, to the Full Moon of June, 1945. This period, in reality, constitutes one event to Him Who lives now free in His Own world and free from the limitations of time and space. Having related Humanity to the Hierarchy (which in the case of individual man means relating the personality to the soul), He now seeks to relate more closely, with the aid of the Buddha, the Hierarchy to Shamballa, love to will, electric fire to solar fire.

2. He "nourishes the lesser lives." This refers to the task of the Christ which proceeds day by day, in His capacity of God the Preserver. He "tends the little ones." The work here referred to concerns His activity as Initiator and His responsibility as Head of the Hierarchy. The nourishing of the little lives refers primarily to His task as World Teacher and to His responsibility to lead humanity on into the light, with the aid of all the Masters, working, each of Them through His Own Ashram.

3. He "keeps the wheel revolving." This has a specific relation to His work as the Word of God, which manifests as the Word made flesh.  This refers specifically to the great Wheel of Rebirth whereby, upon that turning wheel, souls are carried down into incarnation and then up and out of the soul's prison; through the turning of the wheel, human beings learn their needed lessons, create cyclically their vehicles of expression (the response apparatus of the soul in the three worlds) and in this way, under soul guidance, and aided by the Hierarchy and its schools of instruction, they arrive at perfection. This entire process is under the control of the Christ, assisted by the Manu and the Lord of Civilisation. These three Great Lords thus represent the three divine Aspects in the Hierarchy; They, with the four Lords of Karma, form the seven Who control the whole process of incarnation. The subject is too vast and intricate to be adequately considered here. The above truth does, however, give us a clue as to why the Christ made no specific reference to the work of incarnation in His spoken utterances whilst on Earth. He was then occupied with His task of World Saviour.

His work as Preserver and as Head of the Hierarchy had not then begun. It was at that time dependent upon the experience in the Garden of Gethsemane and upon the Resurrection initiation. Some day the gold and the silver threads of the Gospel story will be disentangled, and men will know the two interpretations which can be put upon the events and episodes in the career of Jesus the Christ. The underlying true events give us great steps and developments in the work of the Christ as He "enveloped humanity in the mantle of love, grasped the rod of initiation on behalf of His brothers, and faced the Lord of Life Himself, unattended, unafraid and in His Own right." The episodes refer to happenings in the life of Jesus.

At the present time, and at the immediate point of tension, Christ has added to His two immediate and constant tasks that of hastening the coming of the Avatar Who waits for the perfected work of the Hierarchy, focussed in the Christ, and the powerful work of Shamballa, focussed in the Lord of the World. When the exact moment has arrived, the work of the Buddha, representing Shamballa, and of the Christ, representing the Hierarchy, plus the sincere demand of Humanity, will bring about an arrangement or an alignment which will release an evocative Sound which will be extra-planetary, and then the Avatar will come.

Ask me not for the date or the hour, brother of mine, for I know it not. It is dependent upon the appeal—the voiceless appeal—of all who stand with massed intent; it is dependent also upon the hour of exact alignment and upon certain aspects of work being done at this time by the senior Members of the Hierarchy, and also upon the steadfastness of the disciples in the world and the initiates—working in their various Ashrams. To this must be added what Christians call the "inscrutable will of God," the unrecognised purpose of the Lord of the World Who "knows His Own Mind, radiates the highest quality of Love, and focusses His Will in His Own high Place outside the Council Chamber of Shamballa."

That the Avatar will come is a predictable certainty. That His forerunner will be the Christ is equally sure. When Christ comes it will be for the advanced units of the human family; they will recognise Him because He has always been with us, whilst His advent will evoke a responsive vibration from the masses, but not straight recognition. In connection with the Avatar, it will be a process of hierarchical recognition of an overshadowing Presence within Whose aura the planetary Logos will take His stand as the planetary Representative. Then from Shamballa will descend a stream of spiritual potency, qualified by the will-to-good, and this will reach the attentive Hierarchy. The Members of this Group will, through the medium of the Christ, pour light and healing energy upon the Earth and peculiarly into the consciousness of men. I am not able to express the effect of the outpouring from Shamballa in clearer terms. We are told in the Bible that Christ will come in the air, and that He will bring the "healing of the nations" in His wings. I would call your attention to this thought and to its appositeness to this day and generation. I make no prophetical predictions, I only indicate possibility.

When the Avatar has made His appearance, then will the "Sons of men who are now the Sons of God withdraw Their faces from the shining light and radiate that light upon the sons of men who know not yet they are the Sons of God. Then shall the Coming One appear, His footsteps hastened through the valley of the shadow by the One of awful power Who stands upon the mountain top, breathing out love eternal, light supernal and peaceful silent Will.

Then will the sons of men respond. Then will a newer light shine forth into the dismal weary vale of earth. Then will new life course through the veins of men, and then will their vision compass all the ways of what may be. So peace will come again on earth, but a peace unlike aught known before. Then will the will-to-good flower forth as understanding, and understanding blossom as goodwill in men."

So speaks a prophetic passage in the ancient Archives of the Hierarchy which deals with the present cycle of distress (written in June, 1943). For this time men must prepare. You will know when the Avatar links up with the planetary Logos because I will then give you the final Stanza of the Great Invocation (given out in April, 1945). Its use will serve to bring the Coming One to recognition and enable Him to draw upon the resources of the Avatar in the task of world reorganisation and regeneration. He will again come as the World Saviour, but owing to the stupendous nature of the work ahead, He will be fortified and buttressed by the "silent Avatar" Who (occultly speaking) will "keep His eye upon Him, His hand beneath, and His heart in unison with His."

The keynote of Christ's mission will be to evoke from humanity a response to that influence, and an unfoldment on a large scale of intuitive perception. When He came before, He evoked from humanity a gradual response to truth, and mental understanding. That is why at the end of the cycle, which He inaugurated, we have formulated doctrine and mental development.

The work now being done by Shamballa and the Hierarchy on behalf of humanity will tend also to develop group consciousness and the formation of many groups which will be living organisms and not organisations; it will make group initiation possible and will enable certain aspects of the will to flower forth correctly and with safety. The tendency to overlook the distinction between groups and organisations is still very deep-seated; the coming of the Christ will throw much light upon this problem. A study of Rule IV as given to disciples and initiates will also serve to clarify this matter, and with that we shall now concern ourselves.

Rule IV

Let the group see that all the eighteen fires die down and that the lesser lives return unto the reservoir of life. This they must bring about through the evocation of the Will. The lesser wheels must not for aye revolve in time and space. Only the greater Wheel must onward move and turn.

This is a rule peculiarly related to the fourth Creative Hierarchy, embodying its goal as the Aryan rootrace can sense and approximate it. It is peculiarly related also to the quaternary to which we give the name "personality," composed of a vital or etheric body, a sumtotal of emotional states and a mind, plus that integrated something which we call the whole man. Rightly understood and followed, this rule reveals the nature of the fourth plane or fourth state of consciousness, that of buddhi or the plane of pure reason, the intuition. From the angle of the higher initiate, this rule is related to the activity of Monad, Soul and body within the planetary Life, and covers a great mystery and an entire system of relationships of which man in the three worlds is a dim and uncertain shadow.

Some clue to the higher quaternary dealt with in this rule will emerge dimly in your consciousness (more is not yet possible) if you will attempt to realise the following:

1. The Monad relates the initiate to the Will of God, to the Council at Shamballa, to forces active on the planet Pluto, and on another planet which must remain nameless, and also to the Central Spiritual Sun.

2. The Soul relates the initiate to the Love of God, to the consciousness aspect of Deity, to the Hierarchy as a whole, entering it through the Ashram of the Master Who has aided him to take initiation, to the planets Venus and Mercury, to the Sun Sirius, and to the Heart of the Sun.

3. The Personality relates the initiate to the Mind of God, to the intelligence principle of the planetary Life, to humanity as a whole, to Saturn and Mars, and to the physical Sun through its pranic aspect.

4. The Life aspect of the planet, or that great ocean of forces in which all these three aspects live and move and have their being, relates the initiate to that Life which works out through Shamballa, through the Hierarchy and through Humanity, thus forming part of the great sumtotal of manifestation.

It is to these major quaternaries that Rule IV refers, and their relationships only emerge as the initiate keeps the rules. Let us now take this rule stanza by stanza, and so get some understanding of its basic significances.

1. Let the group see that all the eighteen fires die down and the lesser lives return unto the reservoir

    of life.

A very casual consideration will show the student that this rule contains four sentences which refer to one or other of the four aspects we have been considering. Bear this in mind as we study significances, interpretations and carry our thoughts into the world of meaning.

A very cursory reading of the Rule leads one to the surmise that one of the most important hints concerns the effect of the group life and radiation upon the individual in the group. "Let the group see that all the eighteen fires die down and that the lesser lives return unto the reservoir of life." These words deal with the group personality, composed of all the personalities of its members. It should be borne in mind that a group is in itself an entity, having form, substance, soul and purpose or objective, and that none of these is better or greater, or more developed than the aggregate of group lives which compose it. Though individuals of varying points in evolution form the group, none of them is below the level of disciples upon the evolutionary ladder. A Master's Ashram has in it disciples and initiates of all degrees, but no probationary disciples at all. No one below the rank of disciples—accepted and dedicated—is admitted. This is one of the first Rules given to an accepted disciple when first admitted into the Ashram, and it is from that angle that we should now consider it.

The three Rules we have earlier considered are general in nature and relate to certain broad themes or demanded hypotheses which must govern the consciousness of the disciple in the future. In this particular Rule we enter the realm of the specific, and are presented with certain "intentional" activities which must govern the disciple's life now that he is an integral part of the Ashram. He is faced with the proposition of making his life of such a nature that it furthers the group purpose, enhances the group strength, eliminates all that might hinder group usefulness, and brings closer the objective for which the group was formed—the carrying out of the Master's plans. It was the disciple's innate, instinctual and individual response to this ray objective, and his effort to subordinate his personality to the dimly sensed soul dedication, which led the Master in the first instance to recognise him and incorporate him into his Ashram. The moment that happened, the disciple came not only under an increased impact of egoic force and egoic impulsive intention (using those words in their occult sense), but the group radiation began its beneficent work upon him.

The magnetic "pulling" power which had hitherto led him forward is now superseded by a radiating stimulating potency; this effects great changes in him, and produces both eliminating and substituting results. The effect of the life of the Ashram, as far as the group which forms it is concerned and apart from the Master's Own potency, can be described as follows:

1. The life of the personality is steadily weakened, and its grip upon the soul is definitely loosened. The soul begins to dominate in a very real sense.

2. The necessity of incarnation becomes appreciably less, and finally life in the three worlds of human manifestation becomes needless. All the lessons have been learnt and the soul objective has been attained.

3. The Will of the Monad begins to be sensed; the will aspect blends with the love aspect and makes the intelligence aspect fruitful and effective for the carrying out of divine purpose, focussed for the disciple through the Ashram.

4. The purposes of time and space, of events and extension, of matter and consciousness have been achieved and are eventually superseded by something for which we have as yet no term and of which we have no conception. It is that which begins to express itself after the third initiation, when the Father aspect "comes into view"—I know not how else to word it.

5. The whole is seen to be of more vital importance than the part, and this not as a dream, a vision, a theory, a process of wishful thinking, an hypothesis or an urge. It is realised as an innate necessity and as inevitable. It connotes death, but death as beauty, as joy, as spirit in action, as the consummation of all good.

It will be obvious, therefore, that the interpretation of these Rules must involve capacity to pass beyond the usual attitudes and what one might call the usual metaphysical and theosophical platitudes, and to see life as the Hierarchy sees it. This means that life is approached from the angle of the Observer and not from that of a participator in actual experiment and experience in the three worlds.  This Observer is different to the Observer on the probationary Path. Most of the experiment and experience has been left behind, and a new orientation to a world of values, higher than even the world of meaning, has set in. This attitude might well be described as the mode of approach of all who form a part of an Ashram.

Those who form the Ashram are living in the three worlds of experience if they are accepted disciples, but the focus of their attention is not there. If they are initiated disciples, they are increasingly unaware of the activities and reactions of their personalities, because certain aspects of the lower nature are now so controlled and purified that they have dropped below the threshold of consciousness and have entered the world of instinct; therefore there is no more awareness of them than a man asleep is conscious of the rhythmic functioning of his sleeping physical vehicle. This is a deep and largely unrealised truth. It is related to the entire process of death and might be regarded as one of the definitions of death; it holds the clue to the mysterious words "the reservoir of life." Death is in reality unconsciousness of that which may be functioning in some form or another, but in a form of which the spiritual entity is totally unaware. The reservoir of life is the place of death, and this is the first lesson the disciple learns.

The eighteen fires refer to the eighteen states of matter which constitute the personality. They are: seven physical states of matter, seven emotional states, enabling the astral body to function on the seven subplanes of the astral plane, and four states of matter for each of the four conditions of the concrete mind. (7+7+4=18).

These are eighteen grades of substance, eighteen vibratory groups of atoms, and eighteen aggregates of life which form the bodies of the lunar lords which in their totality, form the body of the Lunar Lord, the Personality. The above is the very ABC of occultism and a familiar truth to all of you. What is referred to here has, however, no reference to processes of purification, of control or of discipline. These have been much earlier considered and are regarded as the necessary processes instituted upon the probationary path, and should have reached a point prior to the stage of accepted discipleship where—rapid or slow in expression—they are nevertheless automatic in action, sure and inevitable.

The first sentence in this fourth rule refers to Detachment—the detachment of the soul from the body or the institution of those activities which bring about what is called in the Bible "the second death." It is not detachment as the aspirant practices it. It is the scientific breaking of all links and the ending (through completed use) of all contacts which are now regarded as militating against liberation. It is in reality a scientific process of ending karma; it is individual and national karma which brings a man back into a physical vehicle and clothes him with the qualities and aspects of substance. This must end whilst he is a member of the Master's Ashram and is preparing himself for the triumph of the fourth initiation.  This is brought about by the automatic, ceaseless and unquestioning fulfillment of duty, from the angle of recognised service.

It might be stated that an intelligent understanding of this sentence will lead to those actions which "produce the death and dissipation and final dissolution of the personality through the ending of karma." It must be remembered that a Master has no personality at all. His divine nature is all that He has. The form through which He works (if he is working through and living in a physical vehicle) is a created image, the product of a focussed will and the creative imagination; it is not the product of desire, as in the case of a human being. This is an important distinction and one which warrants careful thinking. The lesser lives (which are governed by the Moon) have been dispersed. They no longer respond to the ancient call of the reincarnating soul, which again and again has gathered to itself the lives which it has touched and coloured by its quality in the past. The soul and the causal body no longer exist by the time the fourth initiation is undergone. What is left is the Monad and the thread, the antahkarana which it has spun out of its own life and consciousness down the ages and which it can focus at will upon the physical plane, where it can create a body of pure substance and radiant light for all that the Master may require. This will be a perfect body, utterly adapted to the need, the plan and the purpose of the Master. None of the lesser lives (as we understand the term) form part of it, for they can only be summoned by desire. In the Master there is no desire left, and this is the thought held before the disciple as he begins to master the significance of the fourth Rule.

In this Rule two main ideas are to be found, both of them connected with the first divine aspect: the thought of Death and the nature of the Will. In the coming century, death and the will inevitably will be seen to have new meanings for humanity, and many of the old ideas will vanish. Death, to the average thinking man, is a point of catastrophic crisis. It is the cessation and the ending of all that has been loved, all that is familiar and to be desired; it is a crashing entrance into the unknown, into uncertainty, and the abrupt conclusion of all plans and projects. No matter how much true faith in the spiritual values may be present, no matter how clear the rationalising of the mind may be anent immortality, no matter how conclusive the evidence of persistence and eternity, there still remains a questioning, a recognition of the possibility of complete finality and negation and an end to all activity, of all heart reactions, of all thought, emotion, desire, aspiration, and the intentions which focus around the central core of a man's being. The longing and the determination to persist and the sense of continuity still rest, even to the most determined believer, upon probability, upon an unstable foundation, and upon the testimony of others—who have never in reality returned to tell the truth. The emphasis of all thought on this subject concerns the central "I" or the integrity of Deity.

You will note that in this Rule, the emphasis shifts from the "I" to the constituent parts which form the garment of the Self, and this is a point worth noting. The information given to the disciple is to work for the dissipation of this garment and for the return of the lesser lives to the general reservoir of living substance. The ocean of Being is nowhere referred to. Careful thought will here show that this ordered process of detachment, which the group life makes effective in the case of the individual, is one of the strongest arguments for the fact of continuity and for individual identifiable persistence. Note those words.  The focus of activity shifts from the active body to the active entity within that body, the master of his surroundings, the director of his possessions, and the one who is the breath itself, despatching the lives to the reservoir of substance, or recalling them at will to resume their relation to him.

Putting it this way, you will note how the disciple is really enjoined to recognise (with the assistance of his group) that he is essentially the Father aspect himself, the first cause, the creative will and the breath of life within the form. This is a somewhat new attitude which he is asked to take, because hitherto the emphasis upon his focus has been to regard himself as the soul, reincarnating when desire calls and withdrawing when need arises. The group life as a whole is here needed to make possible this shift in realisation away from form and consciousness to the will and life aspect or principle.  When this has begun to take place, one of the first recognitions of the initiate-disciple is that form, and his consciousness of form and its contacts (which we call knowledge), have in themselves produced a great thought-form which has summed up in itself his entire relation to form, to existence and experience in the three worlds, to matter, to desire and to all that incarnation has brought him. The whole matter looms, therefore, over-large in his consciousness. The detaching of himself from this ancient thoughtform—the final form which the Dweller on the Threshold takes—is called by him Death. Only at the fourth initiation does he realise that death is nothing but the severing of a thread which links him to the ring-pass-not within which he has chosen to circumscribe himself. He discovers that the "last enemy to be destroyed" is brought to that final destruction by the first aspect in himself, the Father or Monad (which moved originally to create that form), the Life, the Breath, the directing energising Will. It is the will that, in the last analysis, produces orientation, focus, emphasis, the world of form, and above all else (because of its relation to the world of cause), the world of meaning.

Average man lives and has his being in the world of meaning; the initiate and the Master have their focus in the world of Being. They are then naught but will, illumined by love which links them with the world of meaning, and capable of intelligent activity which links them with the world of form, and is the indication of life. But the desire of the initiate is not now for activity, or even for the expression of love. These qualities are integral parts of his equipment and expression but have dropped below the threshold of consciousness (a higher correspondence of the automatic activities of the physical body which proceed upon their work without any realised consciousness on the part of the man). His effort is towards something which means little as yet to those of you who read these words; it is for the realisation of Being, immovable, immutable, living and only to be comprehended in terms which embody the concept of "It is not this; it is not that." It is No-Thing; it is not thought or desire. It is life, Being, the whole, the One. It is not expressed by the words "I am" or by the words "I am not." It is expressed by the words "I am that I am." Having said that, know you what I mean? It is the will-to-be which has found itself through the will-to-good.

Therefore, the eighteen fires must die down; the lesser lives (embodying the principle of form, of desire and of thought, the sum total of creativity, based upon magnetic love) must return to the reservoir of life and naught be left but that which caused them to be, the central will which is known by the effects of its radiation or breath. This dispersal, death or dissolution is in reality a great effect produced by the central Cause, and the injunction is consequently:

2. This they must bring about through the evocation of the Will.

This type of death is ever brought about by a group, because it is from the earliest moment the one unmistakable expression of soul activity—as influenced consciously by the Monad or Father—and this activity is a group activity which wills the return of the lesser lives to the general reservoir from the very first moment that it has become apparent that the form experience has served its purpose and that the form has reached a point of such resilience and capacity that perfection has been practically achieved.  This is definitely consummated at the fourth initiation.  Now, at the end of the great life cycle of the soul, persisting for aeons, the time is nearing when form-taking and experience in the three worlds must end. The disciple finds his group in the Master's Ashram, and consciously and with full understanding, masters death—the long-feared enemy of existence. He discovers that death is simply an effect produced by life and by his conscious will, and is a mode whereby he directs substance and controls matter. This becomes consciously possible because, having developed awareness of two divine aspects—creative activity and love—he is now focussed in the highest aspect and knows himself to be the Will, the Life, the Father, the Monad, the One.

In concluding our study of Rule IV, we are to consider two things:

1. The method of evoking the Will aspect.

2. The process of recognising the Life aspect, the Monad, the Father in Heaven.

The result of these two is given in the two closing phrases of this rule:

3. The lesser wheels must not for aye revolve in time and space. Only the greater Wheel must onward move and turn.

There is one point here that I should like to make because it opens the door to new concepts, even if it is not yet possible for these concepts to be defined so that the mass can understand; even the disciples who read these words will fail truly to comprehend. Only those who have taken the third initiation will rightly interpret. Constantly in all esoteric literature reference is made to the factors of time and space as if there were a basic distinction between the worlds in which these two hold sway and in which the aspirants and initiates of all degrees freely move.  Constantly the aspirant is reminded that time is cyclic in nature and manifestation, and that "space is an entity." It is necessary that there should be some comprehension of these terms if that which the will controls (when evoked) is to penetrate into the knowing consciousness of the thinker.

Space and substance are synonymous terms; substance is the aggregate of atomic lives out of which all forms are built. With this the Treatise on Cosmic Fire largely dealt. This is both an occult and a scientific truism. Substance is, however, a soul concept, and is only truly known to the soul.

Therefore, after the fourth initiation, when the work of the soul is accomplished and the soul body fades out of the picture, only the quality which it has imparted in substance is left as its contribution— individual, group or planetary—to the sumtotal of manifestation. All that remains is a point of light. This point is conscious, immutable and aware of the two extremes of the divine expression: the sense of individual identity and the sense of universality. These are fused and blended in the ONE. Of this ONE the divine Hermaphrodite is the concrete symbol—the union in one of the pairs of opposites, negative and positive, male and female. In the state of being which we call the monadic, no difference is recognised between these two because (if I can bring such ideas down to the level of the intelligence of the aspirant) it is realised that there is no identity apart from universality and no appreciation of the universal apart from the individual realisation, and this realisation of identification with both the part and the whole finds its point of tension in the will-to-be, which is qualified by the will-to-good and developed (from the consciousness angle) by the will-to-know.

These are in truth three aspects of the divine will which exists in its perfection in the solar Logos and finds a medium of expression through the planetary Logos. This will is therefore working out in seven ways, via the living qualities of the seven planetary Logoi Who express Themselves through the seven sacred planets; They are preoccupied with the endeavour of bringing all the forms of life within the orbit of Their influence up to the same measure of recorded recognition and of registered existence. It will be obvious to you, consequently, that on each of the seven sacred planets one aspect of the divine Will will be dominant.

This is the significance of Space—the field wherein states of Being are brought to the stage of recognition. When that stage has been reached and the Knower, the Soul, is fully aware and fully conscious, then there enters in a new factor which also affects space—though in a different way—but which is related to the monadic Life. That factor is Time. Time is related to the will aspect and is dependent upon the dynamic life, self-directed, which produces persistence and which demonstrates persistence in that dynamic focus of intention by periodic or cyclic appearance.

From the angle of the Will or the Father, these appearances in time and through space are so small a part of the experience of the living Entity Whose life is lived on planes other than the physical, emotional or mental, that they are regarded as no life. To understand this, I would remind you again that we must seek to understand the sum total in the light of the part, the Macrocosm in the light of the Microcosm. That is no easy task and is necessarily most limited.

The disciple knows or is learning to know that he is not this or that, but Life Itself. He is not the physical body or its emotional nature; he is not, in the last analysis (a most occult phrase) the mind or that by which he knows. He is learning that that too must be transcended and superseded by intelligent love (only truly possible after the mind has been developed), and he begins to realise himself as the soul. Then, later, comes the awful "moment in time" when, pendant in space, he discovers that he is not the soul. What then is he? A point of divine dynamic will, focussed in the soul and arriving at awareness of Being through the use of form. He is Will, the ruler of time and the organiser, in time, of space. This he does, but ever with the reservation that time and space are the "divine playthings" and can be used or not at will.

We could paraphrase the last two sentences of this fourth rule as follows: The evocation of the will involves identity with the larger purpose. The little will of the little lives must be merged in the larger will of the whole. Individual purpose must be identified with group purpose, which is as much of the purpose of the Whole or the One Life as the little life can grasp at any given point in time and space. It is in this sense, esoterically understood, that time is an event—which philosophy now points out, groping towards an expression of the initiate consciousness.

In the long run, literally when the path of evolution is trodden to its end, what remains will be the divine purpose and the all-enveloping Life as it materialises the plan in time and space. This is the result of the turning of the greater Wheel of life, causing all the lesser wheels—in time and space—also to turn. In the meantime, the human being is first of all driven by desire, then by aspiration towards some visioned goal, then by his selfish will, which reveals to him the nature of the will: persistent application to some purpose, seen as desirable and to which every power is bent. Having exhausted all tangible goals, the inner life forces the man on towards the intangible, and the quality of his will begins to change. He discovers a larger will than his own and begins slowly to identify himself with it, proceeding stage by stage from one realised purpose to another higher one, each step removing him further from his own so-called will and bringing him nearer to an appreciation of the significance of the divine will or purpose.

It might be stated, in an effort to clarify the method whereby this is done, that by the carrying out of the plan the disciple learns the nature of the purpose, but that the purpose itself can only be grasped by one who is developing monadic consciousness. Monadic consciousness is not consciousness as human beings understand it, but is that state of apprehension which is not consciousness or realisation, as the mystic feels it, or identification, as the occultist terms it, but something that appears when all of these three are appreciated and registered in a moment of time within the orbit of space.

Now, having said this, I would ask you if you are much the wiser, or of what profit it is for me to write these words if you understand them not? For two reasons I write. One of my functions and duties (as a Master of the Wisdom) is to anchor ideas in the mind of man and carry down into the realm of words certain emerging concepts so that they may begin to influence the higher level of thinkers. These latter are responsible for precipitating the ideas deep into the human consciousness. Secondly, I write for the generation which will come into active thought expression at the end of this century; they will inaugurate the framework, structure and fabric of the New Age which will start with certain premises which today are the dream of the more exalted dreamers and which will develop the civilisation of the Aquarian Age.

The will aspect of divinity can find expression only through humanity, for the fourth kingdom in nature is intended to be the agent of the will to the three subhuman kingdoms. It was therefore essential that the spirit of inclusiveness and the tendency to spiritual identification should be developed in humanity as a step preparatory to the development of response to divine purpose.  It is absolutely essential that the will-to-good be unfolded by the disciples of the world so that goodwill can be expressed by the rank and file of mankind. The will-to-good of the world knowers is the magnetic seed of the future. The will-to-good is the Father aspect, whilst goodwill is the Mother aspect, and from the relation of these two the new civilisation, based on sound spiritual (but utterly different) lines, can be founded.

I would commend this thought to your consciousness, for it means that two aspects of spiritual work must be nurtured in the immediate future, for on them the more distant hope of happiness and of world peace depends. The New Group of World Servers must be reached and the will-to-good developed in them, and the masses simultaneously must be reached with the message of goodwill. The will-to-good is dynamic, powerful and effective; it is based on realisation of the plan and on reaction to the purpose as sensed by those who are either initiate, and consciously in touch with Shamballa, or disciples who are likewise a part of the Hierarchy but are not yet able to contact the central Purpose or Life. Not yet having taken the third initiation, the monadic vibration is to them largely unknown. It would be just as dangerous for them to be able to reach Shamballa (prior to the third initiation when all personality tendencies are obliterated) as it would be to teach the masses of men today techniques of will which would render their still selfish will effective. The main difficulty would be that the disciples would destroy themselves, whilst the ordinary man would damage himself.

26. RULE FIVE

Rule V, which we are now purposing to consider, is one of great interest and practicality. I would remind you that one of the new things which the coming era of spiritual expansion will see is the inauguration of something entirely new: Group Initiation. Hitherto, one by one, units of the human family have found their way through the Door of Initiation. If this system is to persist, and considering the vast numbers of souls in and out of incarnation who must eventually achieve the goal—two-thirds of the total in this world cycle—even the greater cycles which include many world cycles would prove too short a time. The space-time schedule of the planetary Logos Himself would be upset, for He has such a schedule for the cycle of His present incarnation. There is a term set for the appearance of His body of manifestation, our planet, just as there is for the human body. He therefore has to work out His plans within a certain time limit, and this factor conditions the experience of all the lives that move within the radius of His expression, including the human kingdom.

It must be remembered also that as humanity develops and more and more people begin to function as souls, the nature of the soul (which is relationship) begins to have an effect; men become larger in their outlook and their vision. The outlook of the separated self vanishes, and group relationship and group interest supersede that intense personal and interior relationship and interest which have made evolving man what he is: first of all an integrated personality, and then a disciple—a candidate for initiation. As more and more disciples come into group realisation it will become increasingly possible for the Hierarchy to admit such disciples in group formation. That is one reason necessitating the re-establishing of the Ancient Mysteries on Earth. That group relation has to be demonstrated in the three worlds and expressed by disciples in their group life upon the physical plane.

Hence the new experiment being undertaken by the Hierarchy of externalising Their Ashrams. This process involves immense difficulty, owing to the astralism, the ambitions and the growing personality influence of so many people. Many groups, under self-seeking leaders, will react to this experiment and will proclaim themselves as Masters with Ashrams and as occupied with training people for initiation. Signs of this can already be seen.

The Hierarchy has been confronted with definite difficulty in this matter, for on the one hand the Masters were faced with the glamour-making tendency and astralism of the majority of people and, secondly, with the rapid advance of the human consciousness into the realm of group relationship, group life, group reactions and group activity. This has brought about the intention of the Hierarchy to train such ready minds and hearts for a united moving forward through the Door of Light onto the Lighted Way. That externalisation has not yet taken place. Tentative experiments are being made with some success and some discouragement.

Two things have therefore been decided upon by the Masters as They face the future of humanity and prepare to take the required steps to meet man's advancing aspiration. I have chosen these two words with care. These two requirements have been demanded of the Hierarchy by Shamballa in order to safeguard the Mysteries and prevent a too premature precipitation of the hierarchical life upon the Earth. Both these requirements are expressed in this fifth Rule.

Rule V

In unison let the group perceive the Triad shining forth, dimming the light of the soul and blotting out the light of form. The macrocosmic Whole is all there is. Let the group perceive that Whole and then no longer use the thought, "My soul and thine."

The first demand made by Shamballa is that the groups being prepared for initiation should consist only of those who are in process of building the antahkarana, the bridge between the Triad and the personality; the second demand is that those being prepared should show some signs of the sense of synthesis.

In the past, during the cycle of mysticism through which all aspirants very properly pass, they were taught to "see the vision"—a vision of the goal, of the beauty to be sought, of the loved one to be known, of liberation to be achieved, of spiritual satisfaction and an opened door to greater wonders. In the occult age which has now definitely dawned, the neophyte will be taught to see the picture whole, to think in the larger terms, to emerge out of the normal separative consciousness into the broad state of awareness that "sees no difference." The goal, or rather the result of the mystic and occult way, is the merging of the vertical way of life with the horizontal way of service, and it is this merging which Shamballa demands should condition the attempt now in process of training those who will together seek initiation, will together pass through the Portal on to the Way, and who can together be presented to the One Initiator as a "unit of Light." This sense of synthesis (which must be increasingly demonstrated as each initiation is taken in group formation) is possible only to those who have bridged the gap between the concrete lower mind and the higher mind or—to word it technically and in the language of academic occult science—between the mental unit and the manasic permanent atom.

The goal of the Probationary Path is made beautifully clear in the fifth Rule as given earlier in Initiation, Human and Solar. It says: “Let the applicant see to it that the solar Angel dims the light of the lunar angels, remaining the sole luminary in the microcosmic sky.”

The soul must be seen by the probationer as the sun of the life. All lesser lights must be put out by the light of the central luminary; all little fires must be obliterated by solar fire. The solar Angel controls the personality life and its forces. This, in the New Age, is the goal of the probationary path and of the applicant for discipleship. Hitherto it has been the goal of all the teaching given anent the Path of Discipleship, but the higher rate of intelligence of the modern applicant warrants a change, and as time goes on the present requirements for disciples, up to and including the second initiation, will be the requirements for the Probationary Path.

The preceding will necessitate a clearer understanding of the Path of Discipleship. On that path, the major teaching given in the future will concern:

1. The building of the rainbow bridge, the antahkarana.

2. The nature of the intuition and its development, as it supersedes the mind in its two aspects:  concrete and abstract, lower and higher.

3. The nature of life as the Monad expresses it.

In these three approaches to truth the new revelation lies hid; it will take the place of the teaching upon the soul for the neophytes and disciples of the world, and the emphasis will be laid—for them—on the life aspect and not so much on the love aspect. The reason for this is that more and more people will be living as souls and therefore expressing love, and for them the nature of life and of monadic experience will constitute the normal next revelation—one that is, however, possible only to those who do attempt to live as souls, who cultivate love or the sense of non-separateness, and who are at least dwelling upon the periphery of the hierarchical world. It would therefore be inevitable that—to those so dwelling or treading the Path of Discipleship—the factors which inspire all hierarchical effort would begin to be dimly apparent and that, slowly, these factors would also assume for them the outlines of a dim and distant goal.

The two parts of this rule are consequently expressive of the new demands for disciples—not applicants. This becomes apparent when you study the two rules: one for applicants and one for disciples. The applicant is referred to the microcosm. The Macrocosm is held before the vision of the disciple.

The two demands are expressed in Rule V as follows, and they will be the two basic requirements for the new schools of occultism.

1. In unison let the group receive the Triad shining forth, dimming the light of the soul and blotting out the light of form.

This is the demand for the building of the antahkarana which relates the disciple in his personality to the Triad.

2. The Macrocosmic Whole is all there is. Let the group perceive that Whole and then no longer use the thought, "My soul and thine."

This is the demand for a sense of synthesis which is occult vision and not mystic vision.

In view of all the instructions given earlier in this volume, and in view also of the clarity of the statement made above, there is little that it will be necessary for me to say anent this first demand. The word "demand" which has been used perhaps requires explanation. In considering this subject it should be remembered that admittance to Shamballa and a divine expression in life and service of the first great divine aspect, the will aspect, is the goal held before the members of the Hierarchy. They too are on the way of evolution, and Their goal is to pass through the "eye of the needle," on Their way to the higher evolution.  This higher evolution is that which opens up before a Master of the Wisdom.  

The use of this esoteric term by Christ in The New Testament story gives us a hint as to the nature of the exalted consciousness which He expressed. Faced by the rich young man who possessed so much, Christ indicated that he needed to prepare himself for a great negation and for a step forward.

The true significance of this has never been grasped and lies in the fact that the phrase "rich young man" is in reality a technical term which is frequently applied to an initiate of the third degree, just as the words "little ones" or "little child" apply to an initiate of the first or second degree. This rich young man was rich in his range of awareness, rich in his personality equipment, rich in his aspiration and in his recognition; he was rich as the result of age-long experience and evolutionary development. He is told by the Christ that he must now prepare himself for what is called in Rule V "the Triad shining forth"; he must now prepare for the unfoldment of the monadic consciousness and for the fourth initiation. In that initiation, the causal body, the body wherein the soul experiences and reaps the fruit of experience, must be and will be destroyed. This has to take place before the initiate can enter into the Council Chamber of the Most High and express the will-to-good and the will of God in fulfillment of the purposes of God. The will of this particular "rich young man," initiate though he was, was not yet adequate to the requirements, so he went sadly away; he had to prepare himself for the fourth initiation, the Great Renunciation, the Crucifixion, and thus fit himself to pass through the needle's eye.

There is a symbolic utterance in the Old Commentary which throws light upon the great opportunities which are found in the critical moments in the life of the soul as it experiences incarnation and becomes enriched thereby:

"Within the womb of time and circumscribed by space and limited by darkness—though sustained always by warmth—the life evolves. It develops faculty. It becomes in miniature that which it is. It takes on form and knows the divinity of separation. Such is its goal. Reflect. Knowledge will come.

Beyond the door is greater light and life. It knows itself for what it is. It suffices not unto itself and knows that it is That—part of the Whole, divinely one with others. Reflect. Union will come. Before the rampart of the place of God Himself, a Son Of God comes forth. He stands before the needle's eye and seeks to pass the hindering wall. He is not circumscribed by time or space, but light and life are his. He realises beauty and he knows that That exists.

Instead of time and space and all the rich inducements of the form, he knows himself as rich in love, in knowledge, wisdom, insight, and all the panoply of God (as he can grasp it), except one thing.  Reflect.  Purpose will reveal itself; the Whole will stand revealed and then the soul—loaded with riches and the fruits of labour long—will vanish as the mist and only God, the living One, be left."

There is still another set of phrases dealing with that through which the perfected Sons of God in Their high place must pass when Their work is done on Earth and a greater glory reveals itself ahead. But this I give not. I give only three symbols, which are:

1. The womb...individualisation...separation. Leading to personality integration and self-realisation.

     Climaxing on the Path of Initiation...the birth of the Christ. Producing intelligent activity.  

     Initiation.

2. The two-leaved door...initiation...group consciousness. Leading to soul expression.

      Climaxing in the third initiation. Producing loving living. The third initiation.

3. The eye of the needle..higher evolution..monadic consciousness. Leading to life expression.

      Climaxing in the fifth initiation. Producing purposeful life. Consummation.

Such are the three points of entrance to the three planetary centres: Humanity, Hierarchy and Shamballa.

The moment the initiate or the disciple sees, even dimly, the light of the Spiritual Triad which veils and hides the Central Spiritual Sun, he realises that all other lights—that of the atom of matter, that of the form and that of the soul itself—must inevitably fade out in the stupendous glory and brilliance which emanate from God Himself and which he senses as in process of revelation. He becomes absorbed— intellectually, intuitively, spiritually and finally factually—in that Light.

Here I would remind you that just as the light of the soul revealed to the struggling aspirant a new vision, set for him new goals, enhanced all qualities present in his equipment, and revealed the past, the present and the future of the individual, so this still greater light reveals to the initiate a horizon so vast that it has hitherto escaped his capacity and is yet but possible to vision by an initiate of the third degree, endows him with an occult perception hitherto not realised as existing—a perception which permits him to penetrate increasingly and to cooperate understandingly in the purpose of the Lord of the World. It enables him later to develop the equipment—qualities and gifts of a divine nature—which will eventually enable him to take his place in the Council Chamber at Shamballa and work in full unanimity with the Lords of Karma.

These qualities and gifts concern divine attributes and capacities for which we have as yet no words as they lie beyond the scope of human consciousness, being utterly unknown even to advanced human beings. They only begin to manifest as tendencies between the second and the third initiations, in the same way as the instincts in a small child are, in reality, the germs of later intellectual attitudes and activities. It is needless, therefore, for me to enlarge upon them; unless you are an initiate of the third degree, my words would be meaningless to you and would convey naught. The clue lies for you in understanding the three words—Happiness, Joy, Bliss. Do you, as you speak of bliss, understand wherein it differs from happiness and joy? Bliss is associated with complete Being; it concerns the interior attitude of the Whole.

As the individual disciple builds the rainbow bridge, the antahkarana, and as a group of disciples build the group antahkarana, they make possible the "Triadal perception" referred to above. When the disciple has flung one strand of living light (through the power of magnetic love) across the space separating the Triad and the personality, he discovers that he is a part of a group. This group recognition—faulty and unintelligently expressed at first—is the factor which enables him to pass, along the anchored thread, into the Ashram of a Master.

From the angle of the old teaching, the Ashram of the Master and the focus of the Hierarchy were on the higher levels of the mental plane. Today, that is not so. They are on the plane of spiritual love, of the intuition and of buddhi. The Hierarchy is both retreating towards the higher centre of Shamballa, and at the same time advancing towards the lower centre, Humanity. Both these activities have been made possible by man himself; the growing intuitive perception of humanity, in its higher brackets, enables him to function upon the Path of Discipleship and on higher levels than ever before. This the Hierarchy recognises. The growing aspiration of the masses is also drawing the Masters closer to humanity than ever before. This is an instance of the ability of the initiate consciousness to function on initiate levels and also in the three worlds simultaneously. Of this the dual activity of the mind is a symbol, acting as it does as the common sense and so dealing with all matters in the three worlds, and as the spiritual mind at the same time, dealing with all matters connected with the soul, with light and illumination.

The second demand, that the sense of synthesis should be the goal of the training given to applicants in the New Age, is a direct evidence of the new Shamballa contact, because synthesis is an attribute of the divine will and the outstanding quality of Deity. It was inevitable that intelligence and love should be evolutionary objectives on the planet and the first two divine aspects to be developed, for they are qualities of the will; they make the manifestation of the divine will possible; they guarantee its intelligent application and its magnetic power to draw to itself all that is needed for the expression or the manifestation of the divine envisaged purpose, visualised synthetically, and motivated, implemented, engineered and made possible by the dynamic aspect of the same will.

It is the sense of synthesis, putting it very simply, which will be the goal of all the educational movements, once the New Age idealism is firmly established. Physical coordination, personal integrity (which involves primarily the control and later the negation of the astral body), and personality integration will be the essential first steps. To this will succeed processes whereby the fusion of the personality with the soul, of the lower self with the higher Self, and of form with the divine Dweller in the form will follow next. Then the truly esoteric phase of the educational process will be attempted when the earlier steps or stages have been satisfactorily grasped and there is indication of some measure of real success. By that time the school of the Mysteries and the Halls of preparation for initiation will be generally recognised by the thinking people and believed in by the expectant masses.

The clue to all this esoteric work demanded by Shamballa is to be found in the development of the Art of Visualisation. Through visualisation, three expressions of the human consciousness will become possible:

1. The antahkarana can be built and the shining of the Triad be definitely seen. Such will be the new vision—an outcome of the development of the sense of vision.

2. Groups, large wholes and major syntheses will also be visualised, and this will lead to a definite expansion of consciousness. Thus the sense of synthesis will be unfolded.

3. All creative art will be fostered by this training, and the new art of the future in all departments of creativity will be rapidly developed as the training proceeds. The unfoldment of the sense of vision and of the sense of synthesis, through visualisation, will lead to a sense of livingness in form.

27. RULE SIX

A superficial reading of Rule VI would give the impression that it is a simple statement as to the universality of Life, and also that it embodies an enunciation of the basic fact of hylozoism.

Rule VI

Let the group know that life is one and naught can ever take or touch that life. Let the group know the vivid, flaming, drenching life that floods the fourth when the fifth is known. The fifth feeds on the fourth. Let then the group—merged in the fifth—be nourished by the sixth and seventh, and realise that all the lesser rules are rules in time and space and cannot hold the group. It onward moves in life.

I find it extremely difficult to express the significance of this Rule in such a way that it will convey meaning to you, and this for two reasons: First, the idea of the One Life is so prevalent, and so customary and trite an unrealised truth, that it registers on ears with very little effect. Secondly, the whole story of life—which is purpose, divine will, and absolute determination—and the eternal planning of the Lord of the World is so hard of comprehension that we have as yet no words in the language of any nation which can express it.

This sixth Rule is the polar opposite of the rule as it was given to applicants. There, if you will refer to my exegesis upon that rule in Initiation, Human and Solar, you will find that the objective of that rule was physical purification with the emphasis upon the need for a vegetarian diet at a certain stage of the preparatory process. The reasons for such a discipline were two in number: purification and the necessity for the applicant (at that stage) to refrain from sharing in the benefits incident to the so-called "taking of life." But, can one take life? I think not. Life IS. Naught in heaven or on earth can touch or affect it. This is a point oft forgotten.

The rule as given to applicants consequently concerns their ability to accept and adhere to a self-imposed discipline. Through the means of that discipline, the control of the physical and astral natures are demonstrated by the applicant to himself, and the effect of the discipline is to reveal to him certain inevitable and basic weaknesses, such as control of the animal nature, the powerful imposition of desire, a sense of superiority, of pride and separativeness.  His ability to sustain the discipline and his appreciation of himself for so doing, plus a sense of superiority to those who are not so disciplined, are all indicative of essential weaknesses. His fanaticism, latent or expressed, emerges in his consciousness with clarity, and—when he is sincere—he is conscious of having brought about a measure of physical purity; but at the same time, he is left with the awareness that he perhaps may be starting with the outer and the obvious when he should be beginning with the inner and with that which is not so easily contacted or expressed. This is a great and most important lesson.

It is also an interesting illustration of the technique of the Masters, whereby They permit a fallacy to remain uncorrected (because it is originated by the disciple himself and must be dissipated by him also) and the use of language which conveys a wrong impression. By so doing, the user of the language discovers eventually his erroneous approach to truth. Life cannot be taken in the spiritual sense. This error or mistake in the approach of truth enables men and women upon the Probationary Path to demonstrate the earnestness and sincerity of their aspiration by the discipline of substituting the produce "of the second," and to refrain from sustaining life on the produce "of the third." By sacrificing the life of the second kingdom in nature (to use the applicant's own misstatements) and by nourishing the physical body thereby, the probationary disciple does succeed in ending the grip or potency of the physical nature, and that is always helpful. He as yet does not know that he is adhering to lesser "rules in time and space," and that once he has demonstrated to himself that he can hold them and obey them, he is then freed from them and needs them no more. The disciple and the candidate for initiation knows that life is one, whether it takes form in the second kingdom or in the third or the fourth; he knows that the life in him is one with the life in the first kingdom, the mineral; he learns too that life is impregnable; that it cannot be taken or destroyed but "passes on" from form to form, from experience to experience, until the perfect will of God is expressed through life.

The true disciple does not need vegetarianism or any of the physical disciplines, for the reason that none of the fleshly appetites have any control over him. His problem lies elsewhere, and it is a waste of his time and energy to keep his eye focussed on "doing the right things physically," because he does them automatically and his spiritual habits offset all the lower physical tendencies; automatically these developed habits enable him to surmount the appeal of those desires which work out in the fulfillment of lower desire. No one is accepted into the circle of the Ashram (which is the technical name given to the status of those who are on the eve of initiation or who are being prepared for initiation) whose physical appetites are in any danger of controlling him. This is a statement of fact. This applies particularly and specifically to those preparing for the first initiation. Those preparing for the second initiation have to demonstrate their freedom from the slavery of ideas, from a fanatical reaction to any truth or spiritual leader, and from the control of their aspiration which—through the intensity of its application—would sacrifice time, people and life itself to the call of the Initiator—or rather, to be correct, to what they believe to be His call.

I would point out that the third initiation is approached from a level tableland of experience and of consciousness, and not from the heights of aspiration, or from fanatical sacrifice, or from the standpoint of a devotion which handicaps the service of the devotee and of the Master he seeks to serve. He knows, as a candidate for initiation, that:

1. Life is one and naught can ever take or touch that life.

His sense of proportion as to form becomes adjusted. He is forward-looking towards the soul, and not backward-looking towards the form nature. Some very sincere devotees and promising applicants are so preoccupied with form and its disciplining that they have no real time to give to soul expansion. They are so interested in their reactions to their self-imposed discipline or to their capacity to conform or their failure to accept the discipline, that the spiritual truths—seeking entrance into their hearts—fail to make such an entrance. Temperance in all things, the wise use of all sustaining forms and self-forgetfulness are the hallmark of the disciple, but not of the beginner. Many disciples today who should be functioning in the Hall of Wisdom are still fanatically working in the Hall of Knowledge and are still so earnest over the physical disciplines that the disciplines of the soul are ignored. I would ask you to reflect on this. Applicants have to learn the significance of the words of Rule VI for disciples, "the lesser rules are rules in time and space and cannot hold the group."

I wonder if you can grasp the type of consciousness which distinguishes the Hierarchy, even if you are only able to do so imaginatively and theoretically. They "onward move in life." They work in the realm of life energy; the form seems to Them something which They have definitely left behind, and the consciousness of appeal or rejection of the form nature and hold is to Them only a memory of a distant battle ground where the victory then won has been forgotten and the gains of victory are so far behind that they lie well below the threshold of consciousness. Broadly and generally speaking, workers in the ranks of the Hierarchy (I did not say "with the Hierarchy") are divided into two main groups: those who are working with the unfoldment of the initiate consciousness in the disciples of the world, and those of a more advanced degree who are working with the life aspect and its expression in the lives of the world initiates. Working disciples (who are working in cooperation with the Hierarchy) are also working in two major divisions: Those who are dealing with applicants and are seeking to see the imposition of the physical disciplines, and with the impartation of certain minor values so that beginners may grasp the point that they have reached. There are those also who are working to substitute understanding and service for physical discipline and the earlier, inevitable, selfish ends.

Let me repeat: the physical disciplines are of value in the beginning stage and impart a sense of proportion and an awareness of defects and of limitations. These have their place in time and space, and that is all. Once the world of the soul is entered, the disciple uses all forms wisely, with understanding of their purpose and with freedom from excess; he is not preoccupied with them or fundamentally interested in them. His eyes are off himself and are fixed on the world of true values. He has no sense of self-interest, because a group awareness is rapidly superseding his individual consciousness.

2. Let the group know the vivid, flaming, drenching life that floods the fourth when the fifth is known.

The above words are of prime importance to those who would and can profit by what I am seeking to convey, as I interpret—as far as may be—these Rules. The knowing of the fifth kingdom in nature through the medium of the consciousness of the fourth and the sacrifice of the fourth kingdom to the fifth, of the human being to the soul and of humanity to the kingdom of God, is the parallel (on a higher turn of the spiral) of the sacrifice of the third kingdom, the animal kingdom, to the fourth, the human kingdom. Thus it proceeds down the scale—sacrifice always of the lower to the higher.

It therefore behooves the individual disciple to decide whether he is an applicant, and consequently to be controlled by the "rules in time and space," or a candidate for initiation who knows that life is one and that the form is of no material significance, except as a field of experience for the soul.

We now come to the most important part of this particular rule; it conveys the key to the immediate goal for those who have attained a certain measure of understanding. The words of importance are:

3. Let then the group—merged in the fifth—be nourished by the sixth and seventh.

In other words: "Then let the group—which is identified with the soul—find its sustenance and vitality by the inflow of the intuition and of the spiritual will, emanating from the Spiritual Triad." There are, of course, other meanings, but this is the most practical for disciples. A larger but similar concept lies in the realisation that the human family, the fourth kingdom in nature, is absorbed by the fifth or by the kingdom of God and (when this is the case) can become increasingly en rapport with the sixth and seventh kingdoms.  To these kingdoms no names have as yet been given, because the possibility of their existence is only now just beginning faintly to penetrate into the consciousness of the disciple and the initiate. The sixth kingdom is that of the "overshadowing Triads"—that aggregation of liberated Lives of which the higher initiates in the Hierarchy are a part; They are to that spiritual group what the New Group of World Servers is to Humanity. I know not how else to express this truth to you.

The seventh kingdom in nature is that of the Lives Who participate in full capacity of understanding with the group of Beings Who are the nucleus of the Council at Shamballa. Around the Lord of the World this group pivots; Their consciousness and state of being is only dimly understood by the most advanced Members of the Hierarchy, and the relation of these Lives to the Lord of the World is similar, and yet fundamentally different, to the relation of the Members of the Hierarchy to the three Great Lords—the Christ, the Manu and the Mahachohan. Through these three Lords pours the energy which streams from Shamballa, transmitting the purpose and motivating the plan of Sanat Kumara—His Life Plan. What you call "the Plan" is the response of the Hierarchy to the inflaming purposeful will of the Lord of the World. Through Sanat Kumara, the Ancient of Days (as He is called in the Bible), flows the unknown energy of which the three divine Aspects are the expression. He is the Custodian of the will of the Great White Lodge on Sirius, and the burden of this "cosmic intention" is shared by the Buddhas of Activity and those Members of the Great Council Who are of so elevated a consciousness and vibration that only once a year (through Their emissary, the Buddha) is it safe for Them to contact the Hierarchy.

I am seeking only to point to a wider horizon than that usually registered by disciples and I use these broad analogies to expand your point of view. By so doing I can convey to the enlightened person a sense of synthesis, of purposeful planning and of planetary integrity. This great spiritual structure of Being, of Life and of Direction is something that the disciples and initiates of the world need—at this time—in their effort to stand steady under the pressure of world events, and in their determination to cooperate unwaveringly with the moves and plans made by the world Directors, that "Society of illumined and organised Minds" which is known under the name of the Hierarchy. It is illumination and consequent organisation which is needed profoundly at this time.

You will see, therefore, the significance of the teaching now being given out anent the building of the antahkarana. It is only through this bridge, this thread, that the disciple can mount on to that stage of the ladder of evolution which will lead him out of the three worlds, which will bring the personality into rapport with the Spiritual Triad, and which will finally lead the Members of the Hierarchy (when Their term of service is completed) on to the Path of the Higher Evolution. The antahkarana is built by aspirants and disciples and initiates of the seven ray types, and is therefore a sevenfold woven thread; it constitutes the first stage of the Path of the Higher Evolution. It is to that Path what experience in the mineral kingdom of the Life of God is to that same Life when it reaches the fourth or human kingdom. You can see, therefore, how significant is the coming Science of Comparison; not yet has this science of comparative analysis been turned into a definitely recognised line of approach to truth. The Law of Analogy is the key which unlocks the understanding.

Something of the quality and the revelatory power of the intuition is known by all disciples; it constitutes at times (from its very rarity) a major "spiritual excitement." It produces effects and stimulation; it indicates future receptivity to dimly sensed truths and is allied—if you could but realise it—with the entire phenomena of prevision. A registration of some aspect of intuitional understanding is an event of major importance in the life of the disciple who is beginning to tread the Path to the Hierarchy. It provides testimony, which he can recognise, of the existence of knowledges, wisdom and significances of which the intelligentsia of humanity are not yet aware; it guarantees to him the unfolding possibility of his own higher nature, a realisation of his divine connections and the possibility of his ultimate highest spiritual attainment; it steadily supersedes soul knowledge, and the energy pouring in to his consciousness from the Spiritual Triad—particularly the energy of the sixth and seventh spheres of activity—is the specific and particular energy which finally brings about the destruction of the causal body, the annihilation of the Temple of Solomon, and the liberation of the Life.

Then that which in time and space has been termed the soul can "onward move in life." Evolution as we now understand it ceases; yet evolutionary unfoldment proceeds along new lines which are based upon the past but which produce very different results to those sensed even by the advanced disciple in his highest moments. A new life-expression appears which moves onward freed from all form yet subject still to limitations "within the circle of influence of the greater Life," but not limited by life within the many forms which progress, surrounded by that circle, that divine ring-pass-not. There is still the broad confining sweep of the purpose and the life-intent of the planetary Logos, but within that periphery and sphere of activity the Triads move with perfect freedom. Their onward push towards the higher states of Being is carried out in conformity with the life urge of the One in Whom they live and move and have their being. You will note, therefore, that these words in reality cover or deal with life processes and not with form building or the experience in forms, as usually understood. A consideration of these at present inaccessible truths may serve to inspire your minds, evoke your intuition and give you vision and increased spiritual perception.

28. RULE SEVEN

The Rule which is our theme for consideration at this time is one of deep significance and esoteric interest; it is concerned with the life of Shamballa and with the purposes of the Great Council. This rule is also one of rare beauty and extraordinary implications, and it offers me the opportunity to enlarge upon a subject little known or understood by any esotericist in the average esoteric group. The reason for this is that it is only as the new cycle draws closer—as it is drawing today—that the new and fuller teaching, the greatly extended horizon and the tremendously enhanced perception of the spiritual observer and worker become possible and apparent.

Very much has been given out during the past one hundred years anent the Masters, and (as we are considering the subject of initiation and of preparation for that great transitional experience) it is necessary to understand somewhat the nature of Those with Whom the disciple has to associate, and the kind of world and of consciousness in which They live and move and have Their being. The fact of the Hierarchy is to many thinkers an established fact; the hypothesis that there may be a Hierarchy is a widespread recognition. Information concerning its grades, its modes of working and its objectives are now common property; much has been accepted and much proved by those who believe this teaching.

Before proceeding to a discussion of Rule VII, however, I would like to spend a moment studying some of the effects of this steadily growing fund of knowledge. It has become the possession of the many and not only of the rare and discreet esotericist and occult student; this teaching has now seeped down into the consciousness of the masses and is there producing curiosity, relief and hope, speculation and cynical laughter, conscious spiritual effort or sustained ridicule—according to the type of mind, the sensitivity to truth or the crass credulity of the recipient. But the knowledge, belief and hope in the existence of a planetary Hierarchy has today leavened the entire mass of human thinking in a far wider and deeper manner than perhaps the most optimistic suspect; herein lies the hope of the world, and here is to be found also a fertile field for spiritual work during the coming decades. For this all disciples must prepare.

The rules whereby the Hierarchy may be reached are already well known to the aspirants of the world; they must become equally well known to the average person; the objectives of the hierarchical work must be emphasised and the nature of the divine Plan unfolded so that purpose and goal may be presented to humanity; the synthesis of the chain of hierarchical Existences—from the smallest atom of matter up to and including the Lord of Life Himself—must be unfolded; the essential and spiritual interdependence of all and the interrelation of every unit of divine life must be proved. This will eventually lead to that established unity of effort which will express itself in the merging of the fourth and the fifth kingdoms in nature, and to the establishment of that brotherhood which will constitute the germ or the seed of the coming manifestation of the Hierarchy as the Heart of God (directly related to the Heart of the Sun) in physical expression.  

The entire field of the world—meaning by that phrase all the kingdoms in nature in united inner and outer relationship—will be the medium of recognised spiritual experience and also the field of expression of certain divine qualities and aspects which have hitherto been in quiescent abeyance. What these qualities are, what divine aspects are awaiting precipitation, and which divine purposes are latent in that field of waiting expectancy, I cannot yet reveal or even indicate. The times are not yet ripe.

A great upheaval in all the kingdoms in nature has characterised this day and generation; a stupendous destruction of all forms of divine life and in every kingdom has been the outstanding note of this upheaval. Our modern civilisation has received a death blow from which it will never recover, but which will be recognised some day as the "blow of release" and as the signal for that which is better, new and more suitable for the evolving spirit, to make its appearance. Great and penetrating energies and their evoked forces have met in a conflict which has, figuratively speaking, elevated the mineral kingdom into the skies and which has brought down fire from heaven. I am talking to you factually and not just symbolically. The bodies of men, women and children, as well as of animals, have been destroyed; the forms of the vegetable kingdom and the potencies of the mineral kingdom have been disintegrated, distributed and devastated. The coherent life of all the planetary forms has been temporarily rendered incoherent. As an ancient prophecy has put it: "No true united Sound goes out from form to form, from life to life. Only a cry of pain, a demand for restitution and an invocation for relief from agony, despair and fruitless effort goes out from here to There."

All this upheaval of the "soil" of the world—spiritual, psychological and physical—all this disruption of the forms and of the familiar contours of our planetary life had to take place before there could come the emergence of the Hierarchy into the public consciousness; all this had to do its work upon the souls of men before the New Age could come in, bringing with it the Restoration of the Mysteries, and the rehabilitation of the peoples of the earth. The two go together. This is one of the major points which I am seeking to make. The disruption, disintegration and the completely chaotic conditions existing for the past five hundred years within all the kingdoms of nature have at last worked their way out into paralleling physical conditions.  This is good and desirable; it marks the prelude to a better building of a better world, the construction of more adequate forms of life and of more correct human attitudes, plus a sounder orientation to reality. The best is yet to be.

Everything is being rapidly brought to the surface—the good and the bad, the desirable and the undesirable, the past and the future (for the two are one); the plough of God has nearly accomplished its work; the sword of the spirit has severed an evil past from the radiant future, and both are seen as contributory in the Eye of God; our material civilisation will be seen as giving place rapidly to a more spiritual culture; our church organisations, with their limiting and confusing theologies, will soon give place to the Hierarchy, with its emerging teaching—clear, factual, intuitive and non-dogmatic.

The Hierarchy has been invoked and its Members are ready for a great "act of evocation," of response to the invoking sound of humanity and of a definite (though relatively temporary) "act of orientation." This will force the Hierarchy, of its own freewill, to turn towards a new and more intimate type of relation with humanity. That period of orientation will end when a powerful, earthly Hierarchy will factually, externally and in reality hold sway on earth, working in all the kingdoms of nature and thus bringing about (in truth) the expression of the divine Plan. This plan is implemented through the medium of the senior Members of the Hierarchy, Who invoke the "Lights which carry out the Will of God"; They are Themselves invoked by the Light-Bearers, the Masters; They again, in Their turn, are invoked by the aspirants and disciples of the world. Thus is the chain of Hierarchy only a life line, along which travel the love and life of God, from Him to us and from us to Him.

Rule VII

For Applicants: Let the disciple turn his attention to the enunciating of those sounds which echo in the hall where walks the Master. Let him not sound the lesser notes which awaken vibration within the halls of Maya.

For Disciples and Initiates: Let the group life emit the Word of invocation and thus evoke response within those distant Ashrams where move the Chohans of the race of men. They are no longer men as are the Masters, but, having passed beyond that lesser stage, have linked themselves with the Great Council in the highest Secret Place. Let the group sound a dual chord, reverberating in the halls where move the Masters but finding pause and prolongation within those radiant halls where move the "Lights which carry out the Will of God."

Of real importance, though relatively small, are two contrasts. These emerge with clarity if you compare the instructions given to applicants for discipleship and those given to initiates. The applicant (or young disciple) is addressed as an individual and is told to give forth "those sounds" which will be heard by the Master in His Ashram—for that is the true significance of the words. The initiate functions in a group (always in a group) and has developed or is rapidly developing group consciousness; in unison with his group and as an integral conscious part of it, the Word must be enunciated; this is not a medley of sounds, but is one clear Word of invocation. You need to remember that the disciple is occupied in resolving the many sounds into the Word; when he has done this, his individual approach to reality terminates, and he begins to act with his group where all activity is concerned.

This is a point of major importance for the newer type of disciple to grasp. In the past, the emphasis has been on what the individual initiate had to do in order to fit himself to take initiation, and so become a Master of the Wisdom and a member of the planetary Hierarchy. In the coming new cycle the emphasis will be upon group work and activity, upon group initiation and group approach to the Center of Life. The required mode of life and the needed individual eliminations and adjustments are now so well known (theoretically, at least) that they should have dropped below the threshold of consciousness and should consequently be automatic in their effects. This should also provide a steady inducement to thought which will make the initiate what he ought to be, because his conscious mind is free for group functioning.  This is a concept which must be increasingly cultivated; "As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is." The lower mind should be the organ of heart expression and be as unconscious in its functioning as is the rhythm of the heart itself—the physical heart. The higher mind is intended to become increasingly the field of the initiate's effort, and hence the constant need for him to build the antahkarana.

In this Rule we are therefore dealing with the work to be done by a group of pledged disciples and initiates; they are learning together to make an approach to Shamballa (involving the Will element); this is as much a goal of the Hierarchy as approach to the Hierarchy is the goal of advanced humanity. It concerns the interrelation of great centres of force. This is a point which esoteric students should attempt to grasp for it completes the planetary chain of Hierarchy and throws a light upon the Way of the Higher Evolution.

Great movements and progressions have always taken place upon the subjective side of life; it is these subjective activities which have made it hard for disciples to grasp the truth and arrive at some true realisation of the subjective situation which ever exists between the Hierarchy and Shamballa. The energies concerned are so subtle, and the Beings involved are so advanced and so highly developed (even from the angle of the initiate of the third degree), that it is well-nigh impossible for the teachings (which I seek to give) to be worded in such a manner that they become comprehensible. All that I can do is to make certain statements which (from the standpoint of those I teach) are not verifiable; they have to be accepted on trust and with the reservation that time and the point of view of the individual disciple will later prove their truth—or their non-truth.

The objective of all training given to the disciple is to shift his conscious awareness from the point where he is to levels which are higher than those in the three worlds of definitely human evolution; the intention is to teach him to function on those planes of conscious contact which are as yet so subjective that he only accepts them as existent in theory. The trained initiate knows that they have to become his natural habitat, and that eventually he has to relegate the ordinary and normal human experience to the three worlds of daily expression. These become eventually the worlds that exist below the threshold of consciousness; they are relegated to the realm of the subconscious—recoverable consciously, if necessary for right service of humanity, but as much below the threshold of consciousness as are the ordinary emotional reactions of the average man. These are always recoverable (as modern psychoanalysis has demonstrated) and can become capable of expression and of formulation into conditioning concepts—thus actuating mental perception if deemed of adequate importance. However, it should be borne in mind that the greater part of the emotional life of the disciple must become increasingly subconscious, just as the physical plane life of the normal, healthy human being is entirely automatic and thus subconscious. When the disciple has striven to expand his consciousness, when he has learnt to stabilise his consciousness in the Spiritual Triad, then he becomes part of a great and constant hierarchical effort which strives upwards towards the "Place of Clear Electric Light," to which the clear cold light of the reason is the first key to the first door.

There are three doors into Shamballa, speaking figuratively:

1. There is the door of the reason, of pure perception of truth. Christ gave the clue to this teaching when He said "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." Of that Way we know much, because upon the Way a vast body of teaching has been given, and that teaching, if followed, brings a man into the Hierarchy. He then becomes a factual part of the hierarchical membership. Of that Truth, we know (as aspirants) relatively very little. Truth—as we understand it during the early treading of the Path of Discipleship—is concerned with great verities which are (from the insight of the Enlightened Ones) only the ABC of life.

        These truths are:

• The manifestation of divinity on the physical plane.
• The doctrine of Avatars. This religious history reveals.
• The nature of consciousness, through the development of psychology.
• The doctrine of the Trinity, as it expresses itself through the aspects and the attributes.

These four expressions of truth will be found to convey all the knowledge with which the initiate must stand equipped when he climbs the Mount of Transfiguration at the time of the third initiation. They have given him a spiritual perception of the Plan.

Of that Life, we know nothing whatsoever. The contemplation of its significance belongs to Those Who can move at will within the "precincts of the Lord of Life"—in Shamballa itself. All we can know about it is its lowest step. This enables us to study the impulse or instinct which enables all forms of life to function, which embodies the principles of responsiveness to contacts and to environment, and which embodies itself in the breath of life; this is also related to the air in some mysterious manner, and also to fire. More anent this subject it would be useless for me to say.

2. There is also the door of the will. This is a penetrating power which relates Plan to Purpose and which has in it the faculty of coherent persistence. The reason for this persistence is that it is not dependent upon the content of the form—whether it is the form of an atom, of a man or of a planet— but upon a vital dynamic and immutable purpose, latent in the consciousness of the planetary Being Who, "having pervaded this entire universe with a fragment" of Himself, REMAINS—greater, more inscrutable and "firmer in intent" than any of His creations, even the most advanced and the closest to Him. Only those have clear perception of His divine purpose who do not belong to our earth humanity at all; these are the Lives who came with Him to this planet when He came, and Who remain with Him as "the prisoners of loving intention" until the last "weary pilgrim has found his way home."

This spiritual will is something of which humanity knows nothing; it is hidden and veiled by the self-will of the individual and the group will of the soul. Through both of these experiences the human being moves until his individual will is developed and grounded, focussed and reoriented, and his group will is unfolded so that it includes and swallows up the dedicated, conscious, individual will. When this fusion has taken place (at the third initiation) a great revelation unfolds itself, and for the first time the initiate senses and then contacts the universal will; from that moment the initiate says, "Father, not my will but Thine be done." Just a little of what that will includes may emerge as we study this seventh rule and some of the succeeding rules.

3. I can find no words to express the nature of the third door. Let us, in default of a better term, call it the door of the monadic sense of essential duality. Body and life, soul and personality, the Spiritual Triad and its expression, the Christ in incarnation—all these dualities have played their part. Man has passed from one expansion of consciousness to another. Now he comes to the final duality of spirit and matter, prior to their resolution into something to which the terms "isolated unity" and "universal synthesis" give only faint and inadequate clues. To the development of this system of identification the initiate of the degree of Master of the Wisdom, and also (on a higher turn of the spiral) of the degree of the Christ, are focussing all Their efforts. Up to the fourth initiation, the term "system of expansions" would seem illuminating; after that great initiation, the term "system of identification" would appear more appropriate.

When the initiate has passed through the three doors, symbolically speaking, he then faces all life, all events, all pre-determinations, all wisdom, all activity and all that the future may hold of service and progress from the angle of the pure reason (infallible and immutable), of true spiritual will (completely identified with the purpose of the planetary Logos), and of the highest possible focussed relation. The mystery of relationship becomes revealed to him. Then the entire scheme of evolution and of the intention of the One in Whom he lives and moves and has his being becomes clear to him; he has no more to learn within this planetary scheme; he has become universal in his attitude to all forms of life, and is also identified with the "isolated unity" of Sanat Kumara.

Few of the great Lives Who form the inner group of the Council Chamber at Shamballa are now of greater advancement than he; the "Supernal Three," the "Radiant Seven," the "Lives embodying the forty-nine Fires," the "Buddhas of Activity," and certain "Eternal Spirits" from such centres of dynamic spiritual life as Sirius, or from the constellation which at any one time forms a triangle with our Sun and Sirius" and a Representative from Venus are of greater—far greater—advancement. Otherwise, all initiates of the sixth degree, and a few of the Masters Who have undergone specialised training because They are upon the first Ray of Will or Power (the ray conditioning Shamballa itself), form part of the Great Council. Many Masters and Chohans, however, after serving upon the planet in various capacities, working with the Law of Evolution, pass out of our planetary life altogether.

All the above information concerning the Lives which are far in advance of the disciples of the world contains little of moment for you, except in so far as it falls into a diagrammatic pattern of our planetary life and purpose, and enabling you, therefore, to get a faint glimpse of a synthetic theme and purpose to which all evolving lives must and will eventually conform.

It must ever be borne in mind that the great theme of LIGHT underlies our entire planetary purpose. The full expression of perfect LIGHT, occultly understood, is the engrossing life-purpose of our planetary Logos. Light is the great and obsessing enterprise in the three worlds of human evolution; everywhere men rate the light of the sun as essential to healthy living; some idea of the human urge to light can be grasped if you consider the brilliance of the physically engendered light in which we live when night arrives, and compare it with the mode of lighting the streets and homes of the world prior to the discovery of gas, and later of electricity. The light of knowledge, as the reward of educational processes, is the incentive behind all our great schools of learning in every country in the world and is the goal of much of our world organisation; the terminology of light controls even our computation of time.

The mystery of electricity is unfolding gradually before our rapt eyes and the electrical nature of man is being slowly proven and will later demonstrate that, throughout the human structure and form, man is composed primarily of light atoms, and that the light in the head (so familiar to esotericists) is no fiction or figment of wishful thinking or of a hallucinated imagination, but is definitely brought about by the junction or fusion of the light inherent in substance itself and the light of the soul.

It will be found that this will be capable of scientific proof. It will also be shown that the soul itself is light, and that the entire Hierarchy is a great centre of light, causing the symbology of light to govern our thinking, our approach to God, and enabling us to understand somewhat the meaning of the words of Christ "I am the Light of the world." These words carry meaning to all true disciples and present them with an analogous goal which they define to themselves as that of finding the light, appropriating the light, and themselves becoming light-bearers. The theme of light runs through all the world Scriptures; the idea of enlightenment conditions all the training given to the youth of the world (limited though the application of this idea may be), and the thought of more light governs all the inchoate yearnings of the human spirit.

We have not yet carried the concept up to the Centre of Life where dwells the Ancient of Days, the Eternal Youth, the Lord of the World, Sanat Kumara, Melchizedek—God. Yet from that Centre streams what has been called the Light of Life, the Light Supernal. These are empty words as yet until we know, as trained initiates, that light is a symptom and an expression of Life, and that essentially, occultly and in a most mysterious way the terms, Light and Life, are interchangeable within the limits of the planetary ring-pass-not. Beyond those limits—who knows? Light can be regarded as a symptom, a reaction to the meeting and consequent fusion of spirit and matter.

Therefore, where that great point of fusion and of solar crisis (for that is what it is, even when producing a planetary crisis) appears in time and space, light also immediately appears and of such intensity that only those who know the light of the soul, and who can bear the hierarchical light can be trained to enter into and form part of the light of Shamballa and walk in those "radiant halls where move the Lights which carry out the Will of God."

To carry the concept a little nearer home: only when the will of the personality and the will of the soul come together—evoked by love—does the light of the soul dominate the material light of the personality. This is a statement of importance. Only when the will of the Monad and the will of the Hierarchy of souls meet and blend in the "upper brackets" can the radiant light of Life dominate the blended lights of Humanity and of the Hierarchy. Faintly this group fusion and junction can be seen to be taking place.

It is also the first touch of the radiance of Shamballa which is bringing the universal revelation of evil, a radiance which is now producing the world unrest and which has brought about the lining up of good and evil; this touch of radiance is the conditioning factor behind what is called post-war planning and the ideas of reconstruction and of world rebuilding which are dominating the best human thinking at this time.

It should be carefully borne in mind that evil (cosmic evil or the source of planetary evil) is much closer to Shamballa than it is to Humanity. The Great Lives there move entirely free from glamour; Their vision is one of extreme simplicity; They are concerned only with the great and simple duality of spirit and matter, and not with the many forms which the fusion of these two brings into being. The domination of spirit (and its reflection, soul) by matter is what constitutes evil and this is true whether the statement is applied to the development of the individual or of the group. The "Lights which carry out the will of God" move free from the spell of evil. The Light in which They move safeguards Them, and Their Own innate and inherent radiance repels evil.  But They "move alongside the evil to which all lesser forms are prone"; They are part of a great observing Group which "moves forward in time and space"; its members watch the great war and conflict proceed on Earth between the Forces of Light and the Forces of Evil. They have let loose upon Earth the Forces of Light, whilst the Forces of Evil are inherent in substance itself—of which all the many forms of life are constructed.

At this time, the work of the Great Council at Shamballa, working until now through the Hierarchy, is with the life within the form; They have to proceed with the utmost caution as They thus work, because these Lights know that the danger of premature direct contact with humanity, and of consequent overstimulation, are great. One of the causes of the present cataclysm is the fact that humanity was deemed capable of taking and receiving a "touch from Shamballa," without stepping it down via the Hierarchy, as has hitherto been the custom. The determination to apply this touch (which is in the nature of a great experiment) was made in 1825, when the Great Council had its usual centennial meeting. The results you know; they are working out before your eyes.  The industrial movement began to take shape one hundred years ago and received a great impetus from this touch. The evil in nations—aggression, greed, intolerance and hate—was aroused as never before, and two world wars occurred, one of which is still raging (written October 1943). Paralleling this was an uprising of good, again in response to the divine "touch," resulting in the growth of understanding, the spread of idealism, the purification of our educational systems and the inauguration of reforms in every department of human life. All has been speeded up and little such growth was seen on a worldwide scale prior to 1825. The knowledge of the Hierarchy is also spreading over the earth; the facts anent discipleship and initiation are becoming common property; humanity has consequently moved onward into a greater measure of light. Good and evil stand out in clearer focus; light and dark are in a more brilliant juxtaposition; issues of right and wrong are appearing with cleared definition, and humanity as a whole sees the great problems of righteousness and love, of sin and separateness upon a worldwide scale.

The old age and the coming new age, old rhythms of thought and new approaches to truth and consequent new and better ways of life are presented with clarity to the minds of men. The guarantee of the success of the experiment started more than a century ago is the fact that (in spite of much that is undesirable) so many nations have ranged themselves upon the side of right, and only two definitely and altogether upon the side of evil. The evil is more concentrated, and therefore more powerful temporarily upon the physical plane; the good is more diffused and not so pure in its concentrated essence being coloured by many undesirable aspects; the good, however, is concentrating rapidly and will triumph. The "Lights that carry out the will of God" now wait to give another touch which will enable the reconstruction work to move forward along right lines, but They wait for the invocative cry of humanity and for the dust of battle and of conflict to die down.

The next two rules will reveal the issues still more clearly and will outline for you when better understood, explained and amplified, the processes and methods of hierarchical work, carried on in conjunction with the Great Council of Shamballa. To this must be added the cooperation—as far as may be—of all enlightened men, working under the Lightbearers, the Masters, and under the inspiration of the Lights which carry out the will of God.

In the foregoing I have endeavoured to give some faint idea of the relation existing between the Hierarchy and Shamballa. I did this in order that you might grasp some measure of the synthesis underlying the entire planetary life; in order also that this rule for initiates could be interpreted as intended, as far as is possible, to the uninitiate consciousness; and finally, in order that the entire concept of Shamballa and its immense reservoir of energy, which we call the will or the life of God, may take its rightful place in the occult presentation of truth. The will of God and the life of God are esoterically synonymous terms, and when the life aspect of an individual and his spiritual, selfless will are completely synchronised, then you have—in a human being—the full expression of divinity or what has been called esoterically, "Shamballa is consummated in him."

This again is, of course, only relative but the expression of this relationship may elucidate the problem somewhat, and the aspirant or disciple needs to remember that it is only through the analogies existing in the microcosm to the Macrocosm that enlightenment can come. And how, I ask you, will he understand the relation existing between the three great planetary centres (Shamballa, the Hierarchy and Humanity) when as yet he scarcely knows himself as a human being? How can he grasp these fundamental and advanced truths when he is only just beginning to learn the nature of the hierarchical quality of love and when his spiritual will (which links him to Shamballa) is as yet totally unawakened? And I mean, totally.  But the dim outlines of the general picture must be grasped, and each decade in the future will see the aspirant and the disciple more capable of grasping it.

29. RULE EIGHT

The previous seven rules have been of a wide and general connotation. They have been largely postulates, emphasising group life, group planetary relationships, and the fundamental Science of Invocation and Evocation which underlies all world processes, which is the inspiring energy behind all evolutionary unfoldment, and which creates the medium or channel of related communication between the great centres in our planet, through which the life of our Logos flows and His purposes are worked out. I would remind you that the creative process was initiated by Sound, and in that Sound the Logos both invoked and evoked. He issued the call and He engineered and implemented the response and thus the "Army of the Voice" came into being.

The Head (the idea), the Heart (the ideal) and the Throat (the creative agent of the resulting idol, the temporary and fleeting expression of the ideal, inspired by the idea) came into being; three great Centres emerged in time and space and—at this point in the evolutionary cycle—we call them Shamballa, the Hierarchy and Humanity. With these fundamental factors the first seven rules have been occupied, and I have tried to help you to see their significance somewhat, from the angle of the initiate-consciousness.

We come now to a close consideration of this Rule VIII, where it might be said that the specific rules for the training of initiates begin. These remaining seven rules must be studied most carefully from that angle. They are not susceptible of casual and superficial analysis. I realise that only those who have taken initiation will be in a position to grasp the esoteric significance of the words I use and of much that I may say, but it is for them I write; their numbers are even today more than are suspected, and their ranks will be steadily increased in the post-war period, both through the strenuous effort of disciples in training to "make the grade," and through the coming into incarnation of initiates of all degrees—some of whom are the children of today.

Rule VIII

For Applicants: When the disciple nears the Portal, the greater seven must awaken and bring forth response from the lesser seven upon the double circle.

For Disciples and Initiates: Let the group and within itself response to the greater seven groups which carry out the hierarchical will with love and understanding. The group contains all seven, the perfect group. The lesser seven, the greater seven and the planetary seven form one great whole, and these the group must know. When this is realised and the Law of the Supplementary Seven is understood, let the group understand the Three and then the ONE. This they can do with the united breath and the united rhythm.

On the surface, this rules appears to be one of surprising complexity and immense difficulty. It deals with so many groups and septenates and this seems to complicate understanding considerably. Yet every person in the world is dealing with the multiplicity of units and combinations of forces which make up his entire daily life and which create his environment and his life circumstances. Life would be simple indeed if the average man had only seven factors to consider, with which to conform, to work with and to use. Advance into the world of spiritual values and into the realm of triadal existence (in which the initiate moves) is definitely an advance into simplicity. It is an advance from the complications of the multiplication table and its resultant arithmetic into the simplicity of the symbolic formulas as used in the higher mathematics; it is a moving out of the world of kaleidoscopic figures in constant movement, into the world of meaning; it is a process of getting behind the world of effects into the world of causes, realising that one simple cause or directed movement of energy can set in motion a myriad of effects. The way of the initiate is not a complicated one, once he has grasped the fact that he must release himself from the world of seeming and of illusion and stand free in the world of light, where all stand clearly revealed. Then he can begin to face the lessons and take the training which will enable him to handle energy—having released himself from the control of forces—and begin to direct energy in conformity with the great Plan. The complexity lies in the thinking of the neophyte. The initiate knows it not.

First let us clearly define the various septenates referred to in this rule. I will first tabulate them in the order of their appearance and define them, and then I will enlarge upon them in order to point out where the training enters in, where the rule applies, and how the embodied rule is in the nature of a Law which the initiate may not evade. I would ask you here to refer to what I earlier said anent rules, laws and orders when starting with you this particular study.

THE HIERARCHY

1. The seven greater groups...The seven groups or Ashrams within the Hierarchy.

These carry out the hierarchical will, which is love. They work through love and understanding.

Each is presided over by a Chohan and a group is called an Ashram. These major Ashrams have many affiliated Ashrams, presided over by a Master on the same ray as the Chohan, and are capable at any moment of being absorbed into the primary Ashram. The perfect or complete group is the Hierarchy itself, containing all the seven major Ashrams and their affiliates.

SHAMBALLA

2. The Planetary seven groups...the seven rays, the central septenate of energy.

These embody the will of Shamballa, which is divine purpose. They work as life energy, as quality, and produce appearance. Each is presided over by one of the seven Spirits before the Throne; by one of the seven Ray Lords. Each of these rays has its seven subrays which relate it to all the other rays. These seven rays can, under divine purpose, be re-absorbed into the Three and then into the One.

HUMANITY

3. The lesser seven...the seven types of men and also the seven root races.

These embody the intelligence of the Logos as it expresses itself through creativity. They are learning to work intelligently with matter in order to develop love in response to divine purpose—which is will or life.

Each of the seven types, responsive to one or other of the seven rays, is conditioned or ruled by its prototype, the soul on its own plane. These major types or races of men have many subraces and subsidiary types, developed during the evolutionary process; all will eventually demonstrate the seven major types. The perfect type is the Christ, the Heavenly Man, Who expresses all the major types and Who is the "pattern of things as they are."

4. The supplementary seven...the seven centres of energy in the individual man.

These together embody the combined forces of the planetary life as registered by the perfected individual. They will eventually enable the man to achieve perfection. They enable the individual to respond to material forces, to soul energy and spiritual life, and they constitute a complete response apparatus to the planetary life, purpose, intent and form. Each of the seven centres is responsive to one or other of the seven rays and their qualities under the conditioning energy of the soul ray and the forces, emanating from the environment. These centres develop progressively and under the impact of circumstances and the Law of the Supplementary Seven, but all will eventually express in some measure the seven types of ray energy.

The Law of the Supplementary Seven can be worded as follows:  “The Law demands the entrance of that which can effect a change. The Law demands that right direction should then guide the entering forces. The Law demands that the changes thus effected remove the form, bring quality to light and lay the emphasis upon life. The Law demands that this is brought about by the One, working through the Three, energising the Seven and creating the straight line from there to here, and ending in a point which ignores the Three."

When, the rule goes on, this is understood and applied, then four things happen:

1. The group must understand the nature of the Three.

2. The nature of the One must be grasped and comprehended.

3. The group must work through the medium of the united breath.

4. The group must attain a unified rhythm.

Here you have a relatively simple analysis (on the face of it, though not in reality) of a complex rule which the initiate has to apply to himself once he has grasped the significance of the seven basic postulates. The first seven rules provide the framework within which his work has to be done. The last seven rules concern various significant matters which, step by step, are revealed to the initiate as his consciousness is expanded, relating to:

1. The work which the initiate must accomplish within himself.

2. The group relations of the initiate and his absolute need to work with his group and as an integrated and conscious part of it.

3. The place which invocation and evocation must take as instruments in his pledged intelligent service.

4. The blending of the four lessons which the applicant has to master and the four lessons which the initiate has to complete in order that a complete fusion of personality and Monad can be brought about.

5. The significance of resurrection and ascension, particularly the latter, because little has been given out to date anent ascension.

There are certain major frameworks (if I may continue to use this phrase) within which the initiate has to learn consciously to work, recognising them for what they are; once he has learnt to master that which lies within some particular framework, he finds that it is only a part, a small fraction, of a still greater whole, within which he must also learn to function and play his part.

First he, as a disciple, has to learn to work within the framework of his blending soul-personality. This task at first takes the form of character building and disciplining (whilst upon the Probationary Path), of a struggle to see, of an endeavour to make a continuity of his soul contact. Finally, this leads to the beginning of the stage of soul and personality merging and at this point he steps upon the Path of Discipleship, technically understood. From then on his problem is to know himself as he truly is, to direct energy to the needed centres which are awaiting scientific attention, to superintend consciously the fitting of himself, as a personality, to act as the instrument of the soul and later of the Hierarchy, to learn to contact energy, to handle and direct it.

This entails a comprehension of the mechanism within himself—the seven centres within the vital body—through which the contacted energy must flow under soul direction, and it also means the perfecting of the response apparatus and the newly constructed spiritual mechanism which exoterically enables him to contact the outside world, and esoterically enables him to contact the world of souls.  It implies a steady process of interior perfecting until nothing further remains to be done within that individual framework. The bulk of this work has been covered by the time the fourth initiation has been taken, and has been completely covered when the fifth initiation is undergone.

This all takes much time, but when a certain measure of success has been achieved, when the initiate's understanding is somewhat enlightened and his energy-use and his power of direction are becoming intelligently applied, he can then begin to work within the framework of the greater seven groups, that is, within the Hierarchy. This he does first upon the periphery of the hierarchical aura and later as a conscious, accepted and pledged worker in some Ashram—the Ashram being dependent upon his ray type. He then is in a position to discover the close interlocking that exists between the supplementary seven (his own seven centres) and the seven great groups within the Hierarchy; he comes to realise that only when his centres are somewhat awakened and attuned is it possible for him to work within the larger framework of the Hierarchy, and this because the quality of the greater groups and the life expression of the seven planetary groups, the seven rays, are being slowly developed by him under the influence of hierarchical supervision through the medium of his own seven centres—the supplementary seven.

Thus, from a new angle which is practical and not simply theoretical, it begins to dawn on him that he is an inalienable part of a group whole and that this incontrovertible fact involves responsibilities and duties. He discovers that his major responsibility—spiritually speaking—is to permit no hindrance, on the part of the supplementary seven, to the free flow of love from the greater seven, and later the free flow of life (inspired by purpose) from the planetary seven. He knows now that all form a great interlocking directorate through which the will of God is working out. He now knows himself to be a minute part of that great interlocking Whole, a responsible conscious atom within its periphery. Then as he goes on and learns to submit to the Law of the Supplementary Seven, he finds that from the life angle and through his own conscious direction, gradually developed, all the potencies of divinity are his to use, once he can be trusted, as the advanced initiate can ever be trusted. He is then set free for complete cooperation with the purpose lying behind the Plan. He has passed out of the human kingdom into the Hierarchy; later he will pass out of the hierarchical group into Shamballa, or out of our planetary life altogether, and either here or there will begin a greater and more extended service.

Coming down to the immediate practical issues, the initiate is confronted with the problem of work within the individual framework, for I am not here dealing with the requirements for the initiations above or beyond the third. Here the initiate has reached the point where he grasps the significant fact that the way into the innermost Centre is most securely guarded; no one can pass onward and take those more advanced steps which admit into the higher worlds of being and of unparalleled potency until he has demonstrated within the framework of his own life a definite control of energy (and this the black adept also possesses), purity of motive (which the black adept can likewise have, if by purity of motive you mean single-hearted and one-pointed intent), deep love of humanity (which the black adept never has), selflessness, willingness to follow the light wherever it may lead, ability to begin work within the larger framework the moment such an attempt becomes possible, clear vision and spiritual insight, a developed intuition, and an undeviating intention and strong faith in the future. When these qualities begin to show themselves, it then becomes possible to admit the initiate to further advancement upon the Way.

It is believed to be safe for him now to move on a few more steps into greater light, and then—having reached his next point of testing—he must there again demonstrate the rightness of his work within the individual framework and his ability to work within the greater framework in group formation. He must appreciate the fact that as he passes upon the upward way he may not safely so do without the safeguards which protect the Way from him until he knows more; he must learn also that the group protects him and that only with the group can he proceed with security; he begins to realise that the group is not only a protection but also his chosen and destined field of service. He begins to learn with his group the meaning of the "united breath" referred to in the rule, and also to work with the group in "unified rhythm."

Thus he goes from strength to strength. All the time the Hierarchy is aiding in his development and at the same time protecting the Way from him until such time as glamour cannot reach him. This individual security of his is only reached between the time of taking the second initiation and the third. Prior to that, he is still regarded as a potential hazard and as unstable. After that, he may suffer from illusion, but there is then no fear of his permanently turning back and reaching the left-hand path and so perhaps, in rare cases, finding his way into the Black Lodge. The major liability of the average initiate is sloth or lack of speed. Ponder on that.

I would have you grasp clearly the highly condensed presentation I have given you. Some of it you know already but it is the synthetic presentation which I would have you appreciate and appropriate. We can then take up the work to be done within the individual framework by the initiate; I will endeavour to help you to understand somewhat more clearly what the initiate-consciousness would read into the Law of the Supplementary Seven.

Beginning with this eighth rule which we are now studying, we enter upon the consideration of certain major unfoldments, major spiritual happenings and a series of major awakenings in consciousness which are in the nature of events. These involve likewise certain major recognitions and appreciations which will affect the initiate increasingly and bring about his eventual attainment. These are the factors which condition the date of his achievement and not the character undertakings and the soul contacts which are so necessary upon the Path of Probation and upon the Path of Discipleship.

We are principally concerned at this point with the interpretation of the Law of the Supplementary Seven. It must be remembered that the Laws of Nature are imposed upon the mass of men, and cannot be avoided. If these laws are broken, infringed or evaded, they carry their own penalty within themselves, and this also cannot be avoided. These great protective laws are intended to guard the personalities through which the soul incarnates and eventually to cement and further all the great and possible relationships. The man passes from the stage of antagonism (as an individual) to the control of these natural though divine laws, to a recognition of their inevitability and of their wisdom. They automatically then control him.

When this control by the Laws of Nature has become complete, the man becomes an aspirant and begins to come under the Laws of the Soul, which are laws concerned primarily with the establishing of the great Fellowship of the Universe. There has been much confusion among esotericists upon these points. They confuse the discipline to which the personality has to submit when coming under soul influence, with the Laws of the Soul which have naught to do with the petty little affairs of the personality—unimportant and unnoticed by the soul on its own plane—but with the growing recognition of right group relations; these are based upon a growing understanding of the hierarchical mode of work and of inter-hierarchical relationships.

The Laws of Nature, therefore, concern the activities of the soul in form and are mandatory and accepted by the form nature. The Laws of the Soul concern the life of the soul upon its own plane, and the relation which the blending soul and personality learn to establish with other souls and with the Hierarchy. These are consciously and voluntarily obeyed, and are not just accepted as mandatory and as forced upon the man by force of circumstances, experience and evolution. They tend to bring about increasing relation between the Hierarchy of Souls and Humanity as a whole, between the great planetary centre which is the custodian of the principle of love and the planetary centre, humanity, which nurtures and distributes the energy of mind.

The Law of the Supplementary Seven is the great synthetic Law of Life or of Spirit and is the law with which the initiate works; it is this law he wields. From acceptance of the laws of nature and obedience to the laws of the soul, he passes into the positive phase of understanding and wielding the Law of Life. Because this is a governing law for all initiates, and because we know that the nature of life-energy or of spirit cannot be grasped until after the third initiation, it is exceedingly difficult for me to write in explanation of this law.  You have not yet the initiate consciousness. I have therefore had to express this law in terms of form, whereas the initiate understands it from its formless angle.

This law is concerned with the wielding of energy in the world of the Spiritual Triad and not with the distribution or the transmission of this energy to the three worlds in which average humanity habitually dwells. Right wielding of this law (controlling energy in the initiatory world of causes) automatically brings about activity, movement, force expression, and right distribution of these forces in the lower three worlds. These are, under the evolutionary law, direct reflections of the three higher worlds of the triadal light and life. Motivation, the use of the eye of vision (turned this time by the initiate functioning in the world of causes upon the worlds of human living), and the correct direction of force in cooperation with the hierarchical Plan condition all the activities of the initiate working with this law. Clearer than this I cannot be.

This Law of the Supplementary Seven is concerned with the inflow of energy from the seven planetary centres to the seven groups or types of men, via the seven groups within the Hierarchy. In this work of transmission the seven centres of the initiate are used as agencies; their work, therefore, is not the interrelated work of right transmission of energy within the septenary constitution of the etheric body of the individual initiate, implementing his life expression, but is the task of being responsive to the seven types of planetary energy which are received in a pure state. It is then channeled through the seven centres in the initiate's etheric vehicle and out into the world of men as regenerative and constructive forces. These living spiritual energies—transmitted by the individual initiate from the planetary centres—are handled by him under a great uniform plan and are the means whereby salvation (to use an old familiar word) can come to the aid of humanity. This is the "saving force" in its various aspects, of which the Great Invocation speaks: "The hour of service of the Saving Force has now arrived". (The Externalisation of the Hierarchy)

The high Initiates (Those above the rank of Master) work with the energies coming from the seven planets of the solar system at this time active; these feed or implement the seven planetary centres. But the Law of the Supplementary Seven is applied by initiates below the rank of Master, and they are therefore working solely with the seven centres within the Form of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being.

One of their first tasks is to bring about a free flow and right energy relations between the three major centres in our planet which correspond to the head, heart and throat centres in man. They are occupied with the circulation of energy between Shamballa, the Hierarchy and Humanity. This circulation, which for the first time in planetary history includes the highest centre, Shamballa, is not yet completely established. Shamballa has been in touch with the centre called Humanity by impact several times in the history of the race. But there has been no reciprocal action and no free flow.

Humanity has taken the impact of energy and this impact has wrought changes in the activity of the centre, but there has been no "responsive return," as it is esoterically called, and hence no circulation. The Shamballa force has hitherto been transmitted via the Hierarchy. For the first time, and in this century there has been direct impact. The diagram may make this clearer.

We shall eventually have a free circulation and a veritable vortex of force set up between the three centres; it will be of such an increasing radiatory activity that—moving in both directions around the three centres—it will eventually contact the radiations emanating from the other four centres of the planetary Life, thus completing the interplay and the interrelation between all seven.  These four include the three lower kingdoms of nature and a certain basic centre (corresponding to the centre at the base of the spine in man) about which nothing is as yet known nor will be known for ages to come.

The importance, therefore, of the centre which we call Humanity will be apparent. The Secret Doctrine has ever taught that mankind has a special function in saving and regenerating nature. The "saving force"—a circulatory combination of the three major energies—is radiated by humanity as a group-creative impulse, and this gradually sweeps all forms of life into the field of its magnetic potency, thus relating them (or rather the soul of each kingdom) to the Hierarchy and to Shamballa. This involves a great mystery which is closely tied up—little as you may realise it—with the doctrine of Avatars or of World Saviours. A study of these ideas may carry illumination, but I would again remind you that I write for initiates, living at a later period in this century and in the next.

1. "The group must understand the nature of the Three." This will be seen to refer to the three major centres and the nature of their relationship, and not specifically to the Trinity.

2. "The nature of the One must be grasped and comprehended." This has reference to the fact that our planetary Life is Itself a centre within a still greater Life, and is today one of the three planetary centres (even if not yet one of the seven sacred planets) which are the custodians of the force, in process of transmission, which will be to the greater Life what Shamballa, the Hierarchy and Humanity are to Our planetary Logos.

3. "The group must work through the medium of the united breath." This deals with the processes of circulation, for the breath is the life and pours through all the centres.

4. "The group must attain a unified rhythm." This has no reference in reality to the work of a group of disciples, but to a group of centres of life, such as the three major centres or the entire group of seven centres.

In considering this Law of the Supplementary Seven, I would like to point out that the word "supplementary" is of real significance. It brings in a factor of great interest, from the angle of initiation. You must bear in mind that when the antahkarana is constructed and in use, there is consequently a free play of energy in a direct line between the Spiritual Triad and the personality; i.e., between the Monad and its "earthly anchor." You will also remember that the soul body, the form on the higher levels of the mental plane which has "shrouded" the soul, eventually disappears.  This, as you know, takes place at the fourth initiation and is one of the best recognised facts in the occult teaching.  In the three worlds, the correspondence to this disappearance of the form of the second divine aspect, the soul, is the dissolution of the astral body—the second aspect of the personality. Then the personality stands free from its control. Sensitivity and reaction to contact in the three worlds has been perfectly developed, but it no longer holds the disciple a prisoner.

Then, at a later stage upon the Path of Initiation, the causal body also disappears and the initiate stands free in the three worlds. The astral body and the causal or soul body are—in the language of esotericism—supplementary to reality. They have had a temporary reality during the evolutionary process, but (having served their purpose and having endowed man with certain required assets— consciousness, feeling, sensitivity, the ability to establish and register contact) they pass away and the initiate remains, possessed of power over form and a fully awakened consciousness. He is a soul and the fusion is complete.

What is true of the individual is true too of the Heavenly Man, the planetary Logos. In the long period of a world cycle there comes a time when the Hierarchy itself, as a body organised and functioning in order to implement certain evolutionary ends, is no longer needed. It is then regarded as "supplementary," and under the Law its life, its potency and its entire consciousness are absorbed into the planetary head centre, Shamballa. A great process of abstraction or of withdrawal takes place, covering necessarily a long period of time, and which is consummated only when evolution—as we know it—comes to an end and the planetary Life (again as we know it) also comes to an end. This process of abstraction is always going on. Men become disciples and then initiates. Some stay as hierarchical workers, choosing to work with the planetary forces of evolution. Others pass on into the great Council Chamber of the Lord of the World, and still others pass out of our planetary ring-pass-not altogether.

Thus the Law of the Supplementary Seven is ever in force. It functions in the processes going on in the seven centres of the individual man, gathering energy from one centre into another until all are centred, controlled and directed in the head. In the stage of what the Hindus call "samadhi" the vital energies from all the centres are concentrated in the highest head centre in the etheric body, in the area just above the physical head. Thus the analogy is complete. The processes of abstraction are (as you may thus see) connected with the life aspect, are set in motion by an act of the spiritual will, and constitute the "resurrection principle which lies hidden in the work of the Destroyer," as an old esoteric saying expresses it. The lowest manifestation of this principle is to be seen in the process of what we call Death—which is in reality a means of abstracting the life principle, informed by consciousness, from the form or the bodies in the three worlds. Thus, the great synthesis emerges, and destruction, death, and dissolution are in reality naught but life processes. Abstraction is indicative of process, progress and development.

It is this aspect of the Law of Life (or the Law of Synthesis as it is called in certain larger connotations) with which the initiate specifically deals when wielding the Law of the Supplementary Seven. The group angle of the matter can be seen if you remember that the individual initiate, when wielding this law, draws upon the united energy of the Will as the group is expressing it in "unified rhythm." It is by the use of the "united breath" of the entire group (as much of it as his individual will can assimilate, focus, use and direct) that he augments his own will and its directed force. The breath, as we well know, is the life; this Law is the one wielded by the living or risen Christ, in perfect harmony with the will of Shamballa. Herein lies one of the mysteries of the resurrection initiation about which so little has been told, and it is the very heart of the mystery of the ascension initiation. In this latter initiation the living risen Christ withdraws or abstracts Himself and enters consciously and permanently into the great centre, Shamballa.  The resurrection and the ascension are the results of the death or destruction of the causal body. It can be seen, therefore, how true the Gospel story is to the purposes of Shamballa.

1. The Law demands the entrance of that which can effect a change.

Bearing in mind what I have elsewhere given, it is obvious that that which must find entrance is that vital concentrated will which, when set in motion in an individual, in a group, in a nation, in a kingdom of nature (a planetary centre), and in the planet as a whole, i.e., in all the planetary centres simultaneously, will cause a stirring, a changed measure, a new movement and momentum, an uprising and a consequent abstraction. The changes wrought in the centres when the death of the physical body is taking place have never yet been observed or recorded; they are, however, definitely present to the eye of the initiate and prove most interesting and informative. It is the recognition of the condition of the centres which enables the initiate to know—when in process of bestowing healing—whether the physical healing of the body is permissible or not. He can see whether the will principle of abstraction to which I have been referring is actively present or not. The same process can be seen taking place in organisations and in civilisations in which the form aspect is being destroyed in order that the life may be abstracted and later again rebuild for itself a more adequate form. It is the same under the great processes of initiation, which are not only processes of expanding the consciousness but are rooted in the death or the abstraction process, leading to resurrection and ascension.

That which effects a change is a discharge of directed and focussed will-energy. This is so magnetic in quality that it draws to itself the life of the centres, bringing about the dissolution of the form and the release of the life. Death comes to the individual man, in the ordinary sense of the term, when the will-to-live in a physical body goes and the will-to-abstract takes its place. This we call death. In cases of death in war, for instance, it is not then a case of the individual will-to-withdraw, but an enforced participation in a great group abstraction. From its own place, the soul of the individual man recognises the end of a cycle of incarnation and recalls its life.  This it does through a discharge of the will-energy that is strong enough to bring about the change.

2. The Law demands that right direction should then guide the entering forces.

The entering forces, working under this law, are directed first of all to the head centre, from thence to the ajna centre and then to that centre which has been the governing and most active centre during the incarnation of the life principle. This varies according to the point reached upon the ladder of evolution, and according to the personality ray, with later the soul ray bringing about a major conditioning and change. In the work of the initiate who is consciously wielding this law, the principle of abstraction (when entering the body) is held focussed in the head and is of such a magnetic potency that the energy of the remaining centres is rapidly gathered up and withdrawn. What is true of the individual process of abstracting the life principle, under the Law of the Supplementary Seven, is equally true of the process in all forms and in all groups of forms. Christ referred to this work of abstraction, as regards the third great planetary centre, Humanity, when He said (and He was speaking as the Representative of the Hierarchy, the second planetary centre into which all human beings achieving initiation are "withdrawn" esoterically), "I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me." A different word to this word of His will be spoken at the end of the age when the Lord of the World will speak from Shamballa, will abstract the life principle from the Hierarchy, and all life and consciousness will then be focussed in the planetary head centre—the great Council Chamber at Shamballa.

3. The Law demands that the changes thus effected remove the form, bring quality to light, and lay the emphasis upon life.

Here the three great aspects—form, quality and life—are brought into relation and the point of the evolutionary objective is seen in its true light—LIFE. Note this phrasing. Form or appearance, having served its purpose, disappears. Death of the form takes place. Quality, the major divine attribute being developed in this planet, becomes dominant and is "conscious of itself "—as the ancient writings put it. It is identified and individual but has no implementing form, except that of the greater whole in which it finds its place. Neither form nor quality (body nor consciousness) are paramount in the new state of Being, but only the life aspect, the spirit on its own plane, becomes the dominating factor. Some faint dim light on the significance of this may come if you bear in mind that our seven planes are only the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane. The process of developing sensitivity in this sevenfold evolution has been undergone in order to enable the initiate to function upon the cosmic astral plane, when withdrawn or abstracted after the higher initiations. He is abstracted from our planetary life altogether. Only one factor could prevent this, and that might be his pledge to serve temporarily within the planetary ring-pass-not. Such Members of the Hierarchy Who pledge Themselves to this work are stated to have the Buddhic consciousness, and the line of Their descent (occultly understood) is from the Eternal Pilgrim, the Lord of the World, then the Buddha, and then the Christ. They remain identified through the free choice with the "quality seen within the light," and for the term of Their freely rendered service They work with the consciousness aspect in order to lay the emphasis later upon the life aspect.

4. The Law demands that this is brought about by the One, working through the Three, energising the Seven and creating the straight line from there to here, and ending in a point which ignores the Three.

Let me paraphrase this, for detailed comment is not possible or permissible. The One directed will (of the individual, of humanity, of the Hierarchy) and the great Lords of Shamballa, working through the three major centres (head, heart and throat; Humanity, the Hierarchy and Shamballa), thereby energise all the seven centres (to the point of abstraction), using the straight line of the antahkarana from above downwards (from the centre of power, the head or Shamballa), and gather all upwards into a point which is neither of the Three (Shamballa, the Hierarchy and Humanity) and ignores them, for they must no longer limit the life. This point lies outside manifestation altogether. Abstraction is complete. Ponder, therefore, upon this doctrine of abstraction. It covers all life processes, and will convey to you the eternally lovely secret of Death, which is entrance into life.

30. RULE NINE

As we proceed with the study of these rules the difficulty of interpreting and explaining them becomes increasingly great. We have arrived at a section of the rules which requires initiate-consciousness for right and true comprehension; we are studying ideas for which we have, as yet, no adequate language. Briefly, we have considered certain of the lower aspects of the Laws of Life as they appear to the initiate and are interpreted by him within the sphere of his normal consciousness—that of the Spiritual Triad. The presentation which I gave you had to be confined within the area of consciousness which we call "manasic awareness," which is that of the abstract mind. Just in so far as that abstract mind is developed in you and the antahkarana tenuously constructed will be your understanding of my words.

The difficulty becomes still greater as we arrive at the study of Rule IX. It was of real difficulty when presented in its lower form to applicants. That rule, as you may remember, ran as follows:

Let the disciple merge himself within the circle of the other selves. Let but one colour blend them and their unity appear. Only when the group is known and sensed can energy be wisely emanated.

Three major ideas appear in this easier rule:

1. The idea of complete identity with all other selves.

2. The idea of the uniformity of their spiritual presentation to the world when unity is established.

3. The idea that—as a result of the two above achievements—the group force, as a real and focussed energy, can then be used.

Glibly the neophyte talks of identifying himself with others, and eagerly he endeavours to ascertain his group and merge with it; yet in so doing the constant concept of duality is ever present—himself and all other selves, himself and the group, himself and the group energy which he may now wield. Yet this is not so in reality.  

Where true identity is achieved, there is no sense of this and that; where the merging is complete, there is no recognition of individual activity within the group, because the will of the merged soul is identical with that of the group and automatic in its working; where true unity is present, the individual applicant becomes only a channel for the group will and activity, and this with no effort of his own but simply as a spontaneous reaction.

I have emphasised the above because in the rule for disciples and initiates, this will be found to be still more the case and the results are brought about by a conscious use of the will which is divine synthesis in action; also, the group referred to is not the Ashram of some particular Master, but that of all Ashrams as they in their entirety reflect the purpose of Shamballa and work out the Plan within the active sphere of the hierarchical consciousness.

Ashrams of the Masters are to be found on every level of consciousness in the threefold world of the Spiritual Triad. Some Masters pre-eminently occupy themselves with the mind aspect within all forms, and therefore their Ashrams are conditioned by the manasic consciousness; they are the Ashrams of those initiates who have taken the fourth initiation but who are not yet Masters.  They are largely adepts upon the third and fifth rays, and work with the manas or mind as it is developing in all forms.

They do foundational work of great importance, but are little understood and their lives are consequently lives of great sacrifice and the term of their service in this particular connection is relatively short. Certain aspects of their developed consciousness have to be kept in abeyance and must remain temporarily unexpressed in order to permit them to work with substance and specifically with the consciousness of the atoms which constitute the forms in all the subhuman kingdoms of nature.

They do very little work with humanity, except with certain advanced members of humanity who are on the scientific line, drawing to their Ashrams only those who are on the third and fifth rays and who can continue with the work, being trained along peculiar and special lines.

The Ashrams of the Masters (to be found on all the rays) Who work in particular with humanity, are mostly to be found upon the buddhic levels of the triadal consciousness. There the note of "loving understanding" predominates, but even these words must be interpreted esoterically and not according to their usual and obvious meaning. It is not a case of "I understand because I love," or that "this," with love, understands "that." It is something far deeper, involving the idea of identification, of participation, and of synthetic realisation—lovely euphonious words, but meaning little to the non-initiates.

On atmic levels, the levels of the spiritual will, are to be found the Ashrams of those Masters Who are interpreting the will of Shamballa and to Whom is committed the task of transmitting the purpose and organising the plans whereby that purpose can be fulfilled. As on manasic levels the Ashrams as a whole are presided over by the Master R., the Lord of Civilisation, so on buddhic levels all Ashrams are supervised by the Master K.H., with the aid of myself (the Master D.K.) and three senior and initiated disciples; the objective is the unfoldment of group awareness and of loving understanding, in order that the forms prepared and conditioned under the supervision of the Master R. may be sensitised and become increasingly conscious of reality through the development of an inner mechanism of light which—in its turn—will condition and develop the outer mechanism of contact. Ashrams on atmic levels are under the control of the Master M., Who fosters the will aspect within the developed forms and Who "adds darkness unto light so that the stars appear, for in the light the stars shine not, but in the darkness light diffused is not, but only focussed points of radiance." The symbolism will be obvious to you though not the full significance.

Embracing, fusing and unifying the endeavour of all these groups of Ashrams, stands the living Christ, the Head of all Ashrams and the Master of the Masters, the Mediator between Shamballa and the Hierarchy and between the Hierarchy and Humanity. Will you gain some insight into the all-pervading conditions if I state that His work of mediating between humanity and the Hierarchy was perfected by Him and carried to a conclusion when He was last on Earth, and that He is now achieving facility in the higher mediatorship which will bring about a closer relation of the Hierarchy with Shamballa at this time. This mediatory work, based on the blending of the spiritual will (which He has already developed) with the universal will (which He is developing), marks for Him a goal which will be consummated when He takes the ninth initiation. These are great mysteries and I only indicate them in order to convey to you a sense of the synthesis of the whole scheme and a recognition of the urge-to-good which pervades every aspect of the planetary Life from the smallest atom of substance, through all the intermediate living forms, on and up to the planetary Logos Himself.

The will is too often regarded as a power by means of which things are done, activities are instituted and plans worked out. This general definition is the easiest for men to formulate because it is understood by them in terms of their own self-will, the will to individual self-betterment—selfish and misunderstood at first but tending eventually to selflessness as evolution carries out its beneficent task. Then the will is interpreted in terms of the hierarchical plan, and the effort of the individual man becomes that of negating his self-will and seeking to merge his will with that of the group, the group being itself an aspect of the hierarchical effort. This is a great step onward in orientation and will lead to a change in consciousness eventually. This last sentence is of importance.

It is at this stage that most aspirants today find themselves. However, the will is in reality something very different to these expressions of it which exist in the human consciousness as men attempt to interpret the divine will in terms of their present point in evolution. The clue to understanding (the clue which will be the easiest for you to understand) is to be found in the words "blotting out all form." When the lure of substance is overcome and desire dies, then the attractive power of the soul becomes dominant and the emphasis for so long laid upon individual form and individual living and activity gives place to group form and group purpose. Then the attractive power of the Hierarchy and of the Ashrams of the Masters supersedes the lower attractions and the lesser focal points of interest. When these, in their turn, assume their rightful place in consciousness then the dynamic "pull" of Shamballa can be felt, entirely unrelated to form or forms, to a group or groups. Only a group sense of "well-Being," esoterically understood is realised, for it is comprehended as the will-to-good. No forms can then hold; no group or Ashram can then confine the consciousness of the initiate, and all differences of every kind disappear.  This preamble is given in an effort to clarify your minds before we study Rule IX care-fully and arrive at its essential meaning.

Rule IX

Let the group know there are no other selves. Let the group know there is no colour, only light; and then let darkness take the place of light, hiding all difference, blotting out all form. Then—at the place of tension, and at that darkest point—let the group see a point of clear cold fire, and in the fire (right at its very heart) let the One Initiator appear Whose star shone forth when first the Door was passed.

The greatest problem facing aspirants and disciples prior to the third initiation is that of comprehending the nature of identification. This concerns (in the first instance) the relation of the self to the Self and of all selves to the all-inclusive SELF. It involves the mystery of duality with which they are occupied, and the very moment that theory as to essential unity becomes definite realisation, then the realm of synthesis is entered. For that type of realisation, language as we now have it has no words, and it is therefore impossible to formulate concepts to interpret the consequent and resultant state of being. "Identification with" is the phrase which approaches the closest to the initial idea, and until man has grasped his identical at-one-ness with even one human being, it is not possible for him even to think about it in any truly constructive manner. The complete fusion of the negative and the positive aspects in marriage, at the moment that life is transmitted and transferred, is the only tangible though unsatisfactory symbol of this life-sharing process which takes place when an individual or a group knows actually and not simply theoretically that "there are no other selves."

Identification is connected with dynamic life, with conscious enhancement, with completion and with creative sharing, plus process. It is a process of participation—consciously and constructively undertaken—in the life actions and reactions of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being; it is related to the network of life channels which keep the form aspect of the planetary Logos functioning as a "Divine Representation." Note that wording. It is connected with the circulation of that "life more abundantly" to which the Christ referred when dealing with the true nature of His mission. It might be said that as He uttered this phrase this mission dawned on Him and He made a preliminary effort to serve Shamballa, instead of the Hierarchy of which He was even then the Head. Later, He enunciated as best He could the extent of this realisation, in the words so familiar to Christians, "I and the Father are One." This He also attempted to elucidate in the seventeenth chapter of St. John's Gospel. There is no other passage in the literature of the world which has exactly the same quality. Oneness, unity, synthesis and identification exist today as words related to consciousness and as expressing what is at present unattainable to the mass of men. This manifesto or declaration of the Christ constitutes the first attempt to convey reaction to contact with Shamballa, and can be correctly interpreted only by initiates of some standing and experience. A concept of unity, leading to cooperation, to impersonality, to group work and to realisation, plus a growing absorption in the Plan are some of the terms which can be used to express soul awareness in relation to the Hierarchy. These reactions to the united Ashrams which constitute the Hierarchy are steadily increasing and are beneficently conditioning the consciousness of the leading members of the forefront of the human wave at present in process of evolution.

Beyond this state of awareness there lies a state of being which is as far removed from the consciousness of Members of the Hierarchy as that is, in its turn, removed from the consciousness of the mass of men. Endeavour to grasp this, even if your brain and your power to formulate thought rejects the possibility of this exalted livingness. Be not discouraged at this inability to understand; remember that this state of being embraces the goal towards which the Masters strive, and which the Christ Himself is only now attaining.

It is for this reason that the symbolism of light and darkness is used in the words:

Let the group know there is no colour, only light; and then let darkness take the place of light.

Just as the individual has to pass through the stage wherein all "colour" goes out of life as he emerges out of the glamour which conditions the astral plane, so groups in preparation for initiation must go through the same devastating process. Glamour disappears, and for the first time the group (as is the case with the individual) walks in the light. As the group thus walks, unitedly its units learn a lesson (one clearly enunciated by modern science) that light and substance are synonymous terms; the true nature of substance as a field and medium of activity becomes clear to the initiate-members of the group. To this H.P.B. referred when he said that the true occultist works entirely in the field of forces and energies.

The next lesson which the group unitedly apprehends is the significance of the words that "darkness is pure spirit." This recognition, realisation, apprehensive, comprehensive (call it what you will) is so overwhelming and all-embracing that distinctions and differences disappear. The disciple realises that they are only the result of the activity of substance in its form-making capacity and are consequently illusion and non-existent, from the angle of the spirit at rest in its own centre. The only realisation left is that of pure Being Itself.

This realisation necessarily comes to the disciple through the means of graded revelation and in balanced sequence; each contact with the Initiator leads the initiate closer to the centre of pure darkness—a darkness which is the very antithesis of darkness as the non-initiate and the unenlightened understand. It is a centre or point of such intense brilliance that everything fades out and at the place of tension, and at that darkest point, let the group see a point of clear cold fire.

It is a tension and a point of attainment that is only possible in group formation. Even in the earlier initiations, and when the initiate has proved his right to be initiated, the process is still a group proceeding; it is undergone in the protective presence of initiates of the same standing and unfoldment. It is their united focus that enables the candidate for initiation to see the point of clear cold light and their united will that "brings him upright, standing, unafraid, with open eye before the One Who from the very first has conferred on him the gifts of life and light, and Who now—with lifted rod, surrounded by the fire, reveals to him the significance of life and the purpose of the light." It is that of which the minds of men know naught, and which even the highest intellect is unable to grasp or even sense.

In the familiar words which are so often said or chanted at moments of highest spiritual aspiration, the neophyte refers to the time when "we stand where the One Initiator is invoked, when we see His star shine forth." Two ideas then stand forth: the idea of invocation and of the result of that invocation, which is the sudden and unexpected shining forth of the Star. This star is simply a point of vivid light.  This invocation, though used as the affirmation of a fixed objective by the aspirant to initiation, is nevertheless a mantram definitely appropriate to the third initiation. It is only effective in its invocative appeal when used in conjunction with a Word of Power. This Word of Power is communicated to the candidate (ever an initiate of the second degree) by the Christ Who has initiated him in the first two initiations but Whose protective aura (in conjunction with the initiate's Master and another Master or an adept of the fourth initiation) is required before the star can shine forth—the focussed light of the One Initiator.

For the first time the expanded consciousness of the initiate can contact Shamballa and the One Who rules there, the Lord of the World. For the first time, the focussed purpose which brought Sanat Kumara into incarnation makes an impact upon the enlightened brain of the initiate, bringing something new and different into his equipment, into his nature and his consciousness. I know not how else to express these ideas. It is a blinding conviction of an unalterable will, carrying all before it, oblivious of time and space, aware only of intensity of direction, and carrying with it two major qualifications or basic recognitions to the initiate: a sense of essential being which obliterates all the actions and reactions of time and space, and a focussed will-to-good which is so dynamic in its effect that evil disappears. Evil is after all only an impelling sense of difference, leading inevitably to separative action.

The dualities are then resolved in synthesis and, again for the first time, the initiate comprehends the meaning of the ancient words, so inappropriately translated "isolated unity." To him, in the future, there is no light or dark, no good or evil, no difference or separation. The star that has shone forth, veiling and standing between him and the Lord of the World, the Ancient of Days, is seen as the entrance or doorway and as the admitting agency into something other and larger than simply the planetary life. In the earlier two initiations, the Angel of the Presence stood between the disciple-candidate and the Presence. At the later initiations, the Angel of the Presence is the Christ Himself, one with the soul of the candidate (the individual Angel of the Presence). Through the heart of Christ passes the dynamic power of the One Initiator, as a stream of light, stepped down or toned down by the Christ in order that the candidate can appropriate its potency without risk or danger.

After the third initiation, the candidate must face the One Initiator alone, with no protective Individual standing between him and the eternal source of all-power. The Christ is present, supporting and attentive. He stands directly behind the initiate so as to arrest and distribute the potency passing through the initiate's body and centres; the candidate is also flanked on either side by a Master.

Nevertheless, he faces the Initiator alone and unprotected. Even now, at this much later initiation, he cannot see "eye to eye"—as the phrase goes. He becomes aware of a growing point of light which, from a pin-point of intensest brilliance develops before him into a five-pointed star. At the fourth initiation, it is not a star which shines forth before him, but a triangle; and within that triangle he will perceive an eye regarding him, and for the first time he does see the Most High "eye to eye."

At the fifth initiation no symbol or light substance separates or protects him, but he stands before the Initiator face to face, and the freedom of the City of God is his. He is not yet a Member of the Great Council, but he has the right of entrance into Shamballa, and from that point he passes on to a more intimate relation, if that is his chosen destiny.

He may not even finally become a Member of the Great Council; that is reserved for relatively few and for Those Who can take even still higher initiations within the ring-pass-not of our planet—a task of profound difficulty. There are other and interesting alternatives, as I have elsewhere told you. The initiate may pass out of this planetary life altogether along one or other of the various Paths by means of which a Master can start upon the Path of the Higher Evolution and for which all that has transpired in the past will have prepared Him. Whichever Way He goes, the Master remains a part of the purpose; He knows forever the secret of the darkness which brings light, and the "inscrutable will of God" is no longer a mystery to Him. He comprehends the divine idea and can now cooperate with it; He has reached a point of realisation which enables Him to fathom what lies behind the Plan for which the Hierarchy has worked for aeons.

Just as the disciple enters the world of meaning and so can interpret events, just as the Hierarchy works in the world of mediation, applying the Plan which the world of meaning has revealed, so the higher initiate works consciously in the world of purpose which the Plan implements, the world of meaning interprets, and the world of events expresses in sequential order and under the evolutionary Law.

The symbol which expresses the door of evolution is the crescent moon; that of the process of evolution—as it affects the material or substantial life of the man—is the waxing and the waning moon—the symbol of growing desire and of the dying out of desire. The symbol of the world of meaning is Light—the light which shines upon the ways of men, interpreting events and bestowing revelation. The symbol of the world of mediation is the revolving Cross, whilst the symbol of the world of purpose is a twofold one: the five-pointed star and then the radiant heart of the Sun. Remember that when we talk and think in symbols, we are placing something between ourselves and reality—something protective, interpretive and significant, but nevertheless veiling and hiding. After the fifth initiation all veils are rent and naught stands between the initiate and Essential Being.

32. RULE TEN

We now come to one of the most abstruse and difficult of all the rules for initiates; yet at the same time it is one of the most practical in application and of the greatest usefulness. It concerns the etheric levels of activity. I would have you note that I did not say the etheric levels of consciousness, for there is no such thing as consciousness upon the etheric planes. The four planes which constitute the etheric levels of the physical plane are the lowest correspondence to the four planes whereon the Monad and the Spiritual Triad are active, and—as I have oft told you—upon those levels there is no such thing as consciousness as we understand it. There is only a state of being and of activity for which we have no adequate or illustrative words. The four higher planes of our solar system are the four cosmic etheric planes, and one of the lines of development (confronting the initiate) is to function adequately in response to the life of the planetary Logos upon those planes. That, in the last analysis, constitutes the main field of unfoldment and of acquired wisdom for all initiates above the third degree.

In the above paragraph I have presented you with a new concept re-initiation; one that has always been implicit in the teaching but one entirely and completely untouched as yet in any discussions on initiate-training.

In the rule as given to applicants, the disciple is cautioned to work within those levels according to the methods of the deva or angel evolution. The rule runs as follows:

The Army of the Voice, the devas in their serried ranks, work ceaselessly. Let the disciple apply himself to a consideration of their methods; let him learn the rules whereby the Army works within the veils of maya.

These particular devas in "their serried ranks" are the directive agents of the divine energy which implements the purposes of Deity upon the physical plane. They work only on etheric levels—either upon our physical plane or on the cosmic etheric levels. They are therefore active in the realm of maya, which is the etheric plane as we usually understand it, or upon the planes of the Spiritual Triad. They are not active on the three gross physical levels or upon the astral or mental planes, nor are they active upon the highest or logoic plane. There they are implicit or latent but not active. They are the great "impulsive factors" in manifestation, organising substance, directing the multiplicity of lives and beings who constitute the forms through which God expresses divinity. In a peculiar sense, they are the embodiment of the divine purpose upon the planes of the Monad and of the Triad, just as the aggregate of energies in man's etheric body is the result of his inner direction and the cause of his outer manifestation. To understand more fully the function of the deva forces, a man must arrive at some understanding of the forces in his etheric body which, in their turn, are the consequence of his point of attainment—an attainment demonstrated by his astral (emotional) and mental natures and activities.  These indicate his point of development.

The devas are the agents of the divine will because they are a consequence of the point of attainment of our planetary Logos as He exists outside the seven planes of our sphere of existence, the cosmic physical plane. They are conditioned by His cosmic astral and mental vehicles.  In a definite sense, they are the agents of the Universal Mind, even though they are not mental as we understand that term. They are sometimes regarded as blind forces, but that is only because they get their inspiration from levels of divine awareness outside the range of the human consciousness, no matter how high, or when used in its widest connotation.

Their controlling Agent in manifestation is the Triangle of Energy to which we give the name the "Three Buddhas of Activity." They are therefore closely connected with the third aspect of divinity. They are essentially the "eye within the Triangle"—a most familiar symbol to many today.  They are the expression, in activity, of the All-See-ing Eye"; through their agency God sees, and through them and the energy directed through them, He directs the creative process. They are under the complete control of the three Buddhas of Activity, Who are the cosmic Prototypes of the Lords of the three major rays, but not in the sense usually understood when the rays are considered in their relation to man. They are the correspondence of these three rays and are responsible for the entire manifested universe, but only within the orbit of the third aspect, the expression of the Universal Mind.

They come from the cosmic mental plane, just as the energy—distinctive of the second aspect—comes from the cosmic astral plane.

1. God is mind. God is intelligent functioning. God is creative activity. These are the qualities of the deva evolution.

2. God is love. God is relationship. God is consciousness. These are the three qualities of the Christ evolution. This latter evolution is carried on within the created sphere of influence of the third aspect.

3. God is life. God is fire. God is pure being. These are the qualities of the spirit aspect, the omnipotent aspect of Deity.

All these three aspects focus themselves and find an outlet for expression upon the levels of the cosmic etheric planes and upon the levels of the etheric planes known to humanity in the three worlds. The Law of Correspondences is infallible, if rightly approached and applied.

You have been taught that illusion is the characteristic which must be mastered by the initiate as he "escapes" occultly from the three worlds via the mental plane. Glamour, you are told, is the characteristic of the astral plane, and must be dissipated by the disciple as he "escapes" mystically on to the Path of Initiation, just as the initiate finds himself (after mastering illusion) on the Path of the Higher Evolution.

Maya is the conditioning factor on etheric levels, and must be evaded and overcome by the probationary disciple as he "escapes" from the thralldom of the physical plane. Thus he learns to tread the Path of Discipleship. These characteristics are, however, only the reaction of humanity to the activities of the deva evolution, rightly and divinely proceeding with their task of implementing the divine will. When the sphere of their activity comes into contact with the human intelligence, the effect upon humanity (before mastery is gained) is to compel men "to wander in the fields of maya, to drown in the sea of glamour, and to respond to the pull of illusion."

In this teaching, you have presented to you, though in a somewhat different form, the ancient problem of duality, involving as it does the immense potency of the deva evolution. It definitely affects humanity; this is due to the fact that it is an expression of the will aspect of Shamballa. As man develops the will aspect, he learns to break loose from the aura of the deva evolution, and the major task of the Hierarchy (as far as basic essentials are concerned) is to "provide sanctuary" to those who have liberated themselves from the ocean of deva energies in which their vehicles must perforce move and live and have their being, but with which they have otherwise no point of contact, once liberated by their own effort and will "from the angels."  

Rule X

The rules for work within the veils of maya are known and have been used. Let the group widen all the rents within those veils and thus let in the light. Let the Army of the Voice be no more heard, and let the brothers onward move within the Sound. Then let them know the meaning of the O.M. and let them hear that O.M. as it is sounded forth by Him Who stands and waits at the very centre of the Council Chamber of the Lord.

I would here remind you that we are considering work that the initiate must accomplish, and are not considering the usual effort of struggling aspirants to deal with and handle those forces which have worked through into physical expression. These, from the levels of the forty-eight subplanes are waiting to precipitate themselves into the dense physical manifested world. The aspirant must ever work from the outside to the within and must endeavour to direct his life from above downwards, if these forces are to be dominated by him and are not to control him. The initiate, however, works "from within the circle," that is the circle or field of maya.  His activity must therefore be carried forward from the very heart of the mystery of these forces; this he can do because he is in a position to know the type of energy with which he has to contend, to understand the nature of the forces with which he can and must manipulate the "mayavic energies," and thus to dominate the etheric planes he is also aware where one veil ends and another begins, and from what level he can successfully bring the swirling and living energies into conformity with the divine pattern.

It should also be noted here that the energies projected by the initiate into the world of maya are directed by him from the various centres in his own body and from the central point of energy in each particular centre employed. It is the central "jewel in the lotus" from which the initiate works, and these seven central focal points, these seven jewels, so-called, are the correspondence of the jewel in the egoic lotus. This means, therefore, that successful work "within the veils of maya" involves ever the use of the will aspect and the conscious employment of that quota of the Shamballa force which the initiate is able to appropriate and to use because he has begun to work as a focussing agent of the Spiritual Triad and is no longer working as a soul or as a personality under soul control. This is an important point to remember.

It is along the antahkarana that the force used by the initiate must pour, and according to the nature of the work to be done will be the particular strand or thread of the rainbow bridge which the initiate employs. There are four veils of maya, constructed necessarily of seven forces, and these produce the factual and phenomenal aspect (in time and space) of the Great Illusion, in its three forms of illusion, glamour and maya.

There are seven points of energy through which different aspects of the force needed to produce the desired effects within the veils of maya can flow, and these correspond to the seven ray types or qualities. But the major type of energy with which the initiate works upon the physical plane is the seventh, the ray or energy of ritual, of ceremony, of order and of law. The work done within the veils is one of rearrangement and the ordination and coordination of the forces, present as existent maya; this must provide, in time and space, the forms through which the plans of the Hierarchy can materialise, the souls of all forms can be subjected to the needed experience, and so progress towards the fulfillment of the will of God.

Maya is not something to be destroyed, dissipated, dissolved or negated. Maya is in reality an aspect of time, and connotes to the initiate the mass of creative forces with which he must work; these are swept into form generation and activity, and embody in the transitional, ephemeral, present moment the phenomenal point in evolution reached by the life of God. The work of the initiate, acting under hierarchical inspiration, is to change the present forms into the more adequate forms demanded by the descending life and its dynamic activity.  We are therefore dealing with the precipitated aspect of divine evolutionary process. We are concerned with the relation of the Army of the Voice to the SOUND which conditions evolution, and with the supervisory work of the Hierarchy as it sustains the work of the soul to be found within all forms—built by the Army of the Voice and by the devas in their serried ranks.

The supervisory, directive work of the Hierarchy, carried forward by the Masters and Their groups and by the initiates within those groups, is seldom considered; it is, however, a work of major importance and is one definitely referred to in this rule. Fundamentally, the task set before the Hierarchy is to "let in the light"; but this time not in the sense of revelation, of vision or of illumination. These latter are all aspects of soul light; the work of the initiate is to aid in the construction of the planetary body of light—substance which will finally reveal the nature of Deity and the glory of the Lord. It is the planetary correspondence to the light-body through which Christ and all the Sons of God Who have reached perfection finally manifest. It is a vehicle created by the energy of Will, and it is implemented and "held in being" by the Will. It expresses itself exoterically by the projection of this will energy, via the central point in each of the seven chakras or lotuses.

In studying these rules for the initiate, it must ever be remembered that they concern primarily the use of the will or first aspect. This is the energy of the Monad, utilised via the Spiritual Triad and related to the personality via the antahkarana. Secondary interpretations and tertiary correspondences are always possible, but the main significance of these rules is related to the first divine aspect. You have therefore, as you reflect, think, study and correlate, to bear constantly in mind:

1. The seven ray types.

2. The Monad, the Spiritual Triad and the threefold personality; these constitute another septenate.

3. The seven groups of Masters.

4. The seven centres and their seven central points, or jewels.

5. The four veils of maya.

Various other septenates could also be related, but such relationship is not required by the initiate who has consciously discarded all these lower septenates and works now with the seven major energies, the sevenfold field of their activity and the septenary aspect of the implementing instrument, whether planetary or individual. Simplification proceeds rapidly as one nears the goal of the spirit. Will ever concerns itself with the essentials and not with the details of manifestation. Love concerns itself with transitional, evolutionary fundamentals, whilst intelligence concerns itself with the detail and its coherent coordination in response to the impulse and attractive force of divine love and the dynamic impulse of the spirit.

Let us now proceed, after these few preliminary remarks, to take this tenth rule sentence by sentence.

These are five in number, and the first which we will consider is:

1. The rules for work within the veils of Maya are known and have been used.

Students should remember that the work of the Hierarchy is constantly conditioned by the point in evolution of the human hierarchy. In the early days of human history, thinking, and progress had practically no place, and therefore little or no effect upon the forces and energies which were active upon etheric levels. At that period, they were left in a relatively quiescent state or else were swept into activity by definite and planned impression from the Hierarchy; any effect coming from the human kingdom was due solely to mass impulse or impression. This was very little, owing to the lack of coordinated relation between units and groups within the human family. Later, as family units massed together and formed tribes, and then tribe united with tribe to form larger tribes or embryonic nations, this mass effect increased, but there was still but little thinking or direction connected with it; it was largely instinctive and—if I might so express it—the etheric plane was in reality more in the nature of a matrix surrounding a valuable creation, and was essentially protective, separating and slightly energising.

In Atlantean days, the plane whereon humanity received its major direction or unfoldment was such that the emotional, impulsive nature and the field of maturing desire became dominantly active. Then the real difficulty within the realm of maya started. Hitherto only two energies had been felt upon the etheric plane: the energy of life itself, via the sutratma, as it passed through the etheric plane in order to produce exoteric livingness upon the physical plane, and secondly, the energy of the Hierarchy as a whole, producing a slow, broad, though somewhat negative organisation of the prevalent forces. But then a third and most potent force, generated by humanity, was beginning to make an impact upon the etheric forces. Men were beginning, at this early period of human history, to desire, and this desire was not, as hitherto, of a purely animal nature and hence an emanation from dense physical substance (and, therefore, not related to a principle), but it embodied a new type of energy and was—in reality—man's first expression of the highest divine aspect. Desire is the lowest reflection within the human consciousness of the will aspect.

This potent vibration of desire was evoked by men who were as yet without any spiritual vision of any kind; they were purely material in their instinctive reactions (and rightly so at that particular time), and these reactions attracted the attention of certain purely evil energies or Beings. These Beings availed themselves of the situation in order to satisfy their desire for power—again a distortion of the will or first aspect. Thus the Black Lodge was founded. It fed upon human desire and resembled a vast overshadowing vampire. It vitiated human living and increased the growth of desire far beyond normal expectancy or hierarchical planning, thus creating false goals and standards, building a barrier between the lowest planetary centre, Humanity, and the "middle point" or centre, the Hierarchy.

It will be apparent, therefore, that the following energies were let loose within the realm of maya:

1. The instinctive force of animal desire. This was not wrong in itself and is subject to negation in time, and normally is controlled.

2. The stream of descending life, and this in two aspects:

1. The life aspect, as it bestows being.
2. The life aspect, as it preserves form.

3. The steady impact of the attractive power of the soul, implemented by the Hierarchy and increasing in potency as time elapses.

4. The impelling power of material desire, focussed in the Black Lodge, both feeding human desire and drawing a form of life from the massed desire of humanity.

5. Human development along astral lines, expressing itself as certain well-defined energies or force directions:

1. Material desire for possessions.

2. Desire for that which is owned by others. To this the commandment "Thou shalt not steal" has reference.

3. Personality aims and ambitions; these constitute a form of focussed desire of a compelling, life-determining nature.

4. Aspiration, leading to vision and to the mystic Way.

5. Purification, the conscious handling of desire upon the Probationary Path.

6. Initiation. The first two initiations are taken, as you know, upon the astral plane, and bring complete release both from that plane of glamour and from the realm of maya.

All throughout this period, the organisation of the etheric plane has been going on, subject to the impact of energies and forces as listed above, plus certain other energies (latent or potent) with which we have no immediate concern. Both the great White Lodge and its opponent, the Black Lodge, increased steadily in potency. Gradually the forces took organised form and the four "veils of maya" or the seven separating energies became well-defined. When this differentiation was complete, two great planetary events (if I might call them so) were consummated:

1. The seven centres in the human body (five up the spine and two in the head) were esoterically "in shape." The seven lotuses or chakras were functioning, some powerfully, whilst others remained unawakened. These seven were now visible to clairvoyant vision.

2. The seven Ashrams of the Masters in Their seven groups (conditioned by the seven Rays) appeared, motivated from Shamballa, organised at this time upon the higher levels of the mental plane, and gradually supplied with personnel from the ranks of humanity itself, as one by one men achieved initiation.

Paralleling this activity and implemented, fed and sustained by the Black Lodge, was the appearance of glamour upon the astral plane, and to this thickening glamour humanity steadily contributed and responded. Then as evolution progressed and the human intellect began to make itself felt, "the four veils of maya" and the great "curtain of glamour" began to condition the mental plane. Illusion then appeared, and the distinction between truth and falsehood, between good and evil, and between the left hand Path and the Path of Initiation became apparent to the advanced humanity of the time. These distinctions had always been known to the Hierarchy, but now human beings were faced with them and recognised them: the great potency of intellectual choice confronted humanity and the Aryan race (as that name is correctly used to denote modern intelligent humanity) came into being.

As the ages slipped away, men contributed more and more both to the problem and to the solution of maya, of glamour and of illusion. The potency of human thought began to make itself felt; men in increasing numbers sought the Path of Liberation and so passed on into the Hierarchy; they became active and instructed opponents of the Black Lodge and intelligent wielders of energy as it can be projected downwards and used to destroy the four veils, to dissipate glamour and to dispel illusion. Humanity responded more and more sensitively to impacts—both subjective and objective—and their cooperation began to be effective and useful to the Hierarchy, necessitating some changes in hierarchical techniques, releasing hierarchical workers for other and different activities, and greatly complicating the problem and menacing the safety and the status of the Black Lodge.

One of the results of this mental development was the sending of the disciples out into the world of men; they issued forth in large numbers, and whilst preserving their conscious link with the Ashram with which they were affiliated, they could be trusted to live among men as men and to bring their potency to bear upon the problem of maya and glamour, doing so from below upwards.

This work had to be done by disciples who could stand under pressure, who would, in spite of all difficulties, live nobly and prepare for and take the initiation which was for them their next step. Several hundred years ago, only a few could be so trusted. Today (1944) there are many in every land, though there are very few in Germany, owing to the concentration in that unhappy land of the power of the Black Lodge and also to the misuse of the Shamballa force. This force has been isolated and its destructive aspect utilised in Germany, and this has been done without the paralleling activity of the love energy of the Hierarchy. It is this fact that has made it impossible (since 1933) for disciples of the White Lodge to enter. Elsewhere, however, the concentration of active disciples is greater than at any other time in human history.

I have emphasised this point because our second phrase, "let the group widen all the rents within those veils," has reference here to disciples and the groups which they have everywhere gathered around themselves. It is these groups, many in number and differing in ray potency, which will lead the world through the post-war period into the New Age. It is their pressure upon the physical plane which has precipitated the crisis between the great White Lodge and the Black Lodge. Their work is to let in the light, and where the light goes the Black Lodge must fade out and disappear. It feeds on glamour and illusion and uses the veils of maya as a protection.

Students would do well to avoid naming and differentiating the four veils. The veils themselves are transient and variable. They differ as they come under the impact of the seven rays.  It is not possible or practical to distinguish them one from the other, except from the angle of the Hierarchy, and their destruction today (though it was not so earlier) has to come from the dense physical plane, and the attack must be made by personalities and individualities dwelling in physical bodies. This is a somewhat new mode of approach, for hitherto only a very few disciples and initiates have been able so to work.

Today, hundreds and thousands of disciples are working, and thus learning to use the ancient rules for work within the veils of maya. Let me here give you some of these rules or formulas as they are to be found in The Masters' Book of Rules and as I can translate them.

1. Focus the force at the jewel's point and find the veil that it can touch.

2. Carry the force from point to point and then project.

3. Look for the energy in form behind the veil attacked. A rent within the veil exists. Find it and see.

4. A path lies through the veils, giving access to the several courts. Walk on that path, wielding destruction and clearing out the refuse in the court. The court of the money changers is the last.

5. Meet the descending forces and find the current which is yours.

6. Watch for the evil stream of force which seeks to mend the rents. Project upon that stream the energy of which you know. It led you from the Ashram into the veils. Use it and drive the evil back unto the astral plane.

7. Work with the Sound and know it as the source of power. Use first the Voice; then use the O.M., and later use the Sound. All three together will suffice.

There are other rules, but these will give you the major recognitions needed to do this type of work; these are the rules which the adventuring disciple needs to know. They have been used, and should not be interpreted by the lower mind, but with the aid of the initiate consciousness.

2.  Let the group widen all the rents within those veils and thus let in the light.

We come now to a definite group injunction or instruction. The aid of the group is invoked almost in the form of an order. The point of this formulated injunction is that in the new era and in the interlude between the past (wherein prominent disciples worked within the veils of maya) and the New Age (wherein humanity itself will consciously function upon the etheric plane), the work of the esoteric groups, under the direction of the New Group of World Servers, is needed. They will have the capacity to recognise the distinction between the various veils. This is the next needed development.  The groups must focus the energy at the very centre of the group being; the group must carry the force from point to point and from veil to veil; the group must project the destroying energy and become unitedly aware of what each veil hides; the group must perform the activities (seven in all) of purification; the group must meet, accept and distribute the descending spiritual energy which will finally consummate the work done. The group—through the use of that descending current—will drive the forces of evil back on to the astral plane and will together work with the three aspects of the first ray. These are typified by the Voice, the O.M. and the Sound.

In the above you have in reality a great formula for group activity and also a potent method (once the group can unitedly work together) for the cleansing and the re-organisation of the forces active in the world today. These forces are now raging and running wild; their effect is almost tangible (being in etheric substance) and factually and visibly present under the control of the Black Lodge. This Lodge uses the voices of lying propaganda, the Word of death (which I shall not give to you for the O.M., the Word of Life, suffices), and the Sound of the densest aspect in manifestation—the sound of power in the mineral kingdom. This constitutes an unparalleled condition and creates a unique concentration of the Forces of Good and the forces of evil upon the etheric plane. The task of all groups which are working under the Masters of the Wisdom is to let in the light, utilising those rents which already exist within the Veils of maya.

Three major rents within these Veils might here be noted. They are symbolically referred to in The Bible, though their essential meaning has not been noted or comprehended.

1. The first major rent was made by the establishment of the Law of God, and this is portrayed for us symbolically in The Old Testament in the story of Moses. He went up into the Mount of God and there received the Ten Commandments. This is the expression of divine law as adapted for humanity and as needed in the projection of those forces which will destroy, purify and reorganise. Moses, the Lawgiver, penetrated to one of the halls within the Veils of maya, and there encountered the glory of the Lord. This was of such a radiance that, as the Old Commentary puts it:

"He who entered among the first to penetrate within the veils absorbed the light and knew not how to pass it on. Neither he nor they were ready, but the light was there and likewise the two directing eyes. But only one can use, project and send the light upon its mission. The other must be blinded, and of this fact the Lawgiver was aware. He therefore veiled the light, assuming towards this end a fragment of that which he had helped destroy, and so descended from the mountain top, back to the darkness of the earth."

2. The second, and much the most important rent, was made by the power of the second aspect when the Christ subjected the Master Jesus to the fourth initiation and Their joint influence was triumphant over death. Then we read that the veil of the Temple was split in twain from the top to the bottom. The lawgiver assisted at the first rending as the climax to the third initiation, and there was a somewhat similar process of glorification. A similar event took place at the Transfiguration of the Christ, overshadowing or rather working through the Master Jesus. But at the triumph over death and through the Great Renunciation or Crucifixion episode, a great and major rending took place. The Law, when rightly kept and interpreted, defines man's attitude upon the mental plane and serves to make a rent in the etheric veil, separating the etheric vehicle in its fourfold aspect from the dense physical form.

The rending of the second veil at the time of the Crucifixion let in light on to the second level of the etheric plane, and a new type of illumination was spread abroad upon the earth. Law and Love could now penetrate into the consciousness of humanity in a new and direct manner, as the brain of man became involved through the substance of the etheric counterpart of the physical brain; the instinct to self-preservation (one of the lowest aspects of Law) and the tendency to sensitivity (feeling or emotion, one of the lowest forms of Love) could be expressed in a more comprehensive manner.

3. Another rending of the veil, and one of relatively minor importance, took place when Saul of Tarsus saw the glory of the Lord and was changed into Paul the Apostle. His forward moving and potent directness and sincerity, pushing along "the road to Damascus," forced him to penetrate through one of the separating veils. The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. This force, working in Saul, drove him through the veil which prevented vision, and the rent thereby made brought him a new revelation. He was, we are told, completely blinded for three days, and this the esoteric records corroborate.

This is a well-known correspondence to the three days in the tomb and one recognised by esotericists; it corresponds also to the penetration into the third heaven to which Paul testified later in his life. He realised the nature of the Law, as his later epistles demonstrate; he was brought to the feet of the Initiator through the effect of love, and thus he availed himself of the two earlier rents in the veil. Whilst thus reaching out to the light, he wrote that epistle about which so much controversy has raged—The Epistle to the Hebrews. In it the results of the rending of the third veil provide the keynote and express the first and highest aspect, as the two earlier rents lead to the revelation of the third and second divine qualities. This first aspect is seen as synthesis, as the Communion of Saints, and as related to the Lord of the World, Melchizedek.

Read that epistle in the light of these remarks, and note how a great initiate endeavoured to reveal some facts, inherent in the will or power aspect. These were, however, far beyond the ken of the disciples and aspirants of the time, but can today form a true part of the realisation of humanity. Law, Love, Union or Synthesis—all these great energies have seeped into the human consciousness and now provide the platform upon which the new civilisation can be founded, the new approach to God be taken, and new human relations be implemented.

Three great rents, therefore, now exist, as well as numerous smaller and less important ones, to which no reference has been or need be made. Three great Sons of God at the moment of initiation made a major contribution to the human consciousness through their determined will-to-law, will-to-love and will-to-synthesis. Mankind was thereby aided to move forward more easily along the "lighted Way," to pass through the halls of maya, aided by the light pouring through the rents made in the separating veils by perfected divine Men at the very moment of Their triumph. A fourth great rent still remains to be made as a result of the energies released and the gained good which the three earlier rents have made possible. This fourth major rent will be made by humanity itself, standing with "massed intent," focussed through the groups which are externalisations of the Ashrams of the Masters. It will therefore be made at the time that the Hierarchy takes physical shape upon the earth again.

Bear in mind the symbolical nature of this teaching. The veils are not actually existing veils in the usual sense of that term. They are in the nature of opposing forces and energies which act as inhibitory factors to the aspirant as he seeks to make progress, and to the entire human family as it moves onward upon the Path of Evolution. They are not basically related to consciousness at all, for in the majority of cases these veils "lie on the earthward side of being and not upon the side of light"; they are essentially physical forces, and although they are the result of man's own effort and activity down the ages, they are largely unrealised, unseen obstacles to his progress.

They constitute the lowest concentration of forces precipitated from levels of activity other and higher than the physical, as you understand physical substance. If one might use a phrase which, even if true, is misleading, they lie between the subtle inner man, mental and astral, and his physical brain. They are that which prevents brain registration of the world of causes and of meaning. This inner world can be emotional or mental in its focus and in its force precipitation on to the etheric plane. It can be the fused result of personality integration and be a combination of energies; or it can be dominated by the effects of soul energy.

These, if evoked, can penetrate occultly and drive out or break down and through the separating veiling forces, thus producing coordination eventually between soul and brain. These veils are as curtains over the windows of vision. They prevent realisation of that which lies beyond the room or area of average or mediocre experience, and they prevent the light from penetrating.

The work of the three Sons of God referred to above is not concerned with the rending of the veils of their own interior life and forces, thus bringing about soul contact unimpeded and dear, or with the illumination of experience upon the physical plane. That had long ago been effected in these special and individual cases. Their service was rendered to humanity and They made rents in the veils which separated mankind as a whole from the higher spiritual experience and from registration of the fact of the existence of the Hierarchy. Theirs was a universal service, and made possible further human progress, for until some greater measure of light had been let in it was not possible for man to see and grasp the necessity to destroy the obstacles to light. The veils remain unperceived by the average aspirant until some light appears through the rents in the "curtain of impediment."

The glory of the Christ and the uniqueness of His accomplishment lies in the fact that He was the first to bring about the rending of the veils from "the top to the bottom." This He could do because He acted as the World Saviour, outside and independent of humanity; He was free from the aura of the human family and—again quoting the Old Commentary, as far as it is possible to translate these archaic terms:

"From above He worked and from the further side issued the force which tore its way into the separating forces, driving them in a threefold direction, from the point which is the highest, to the right and to the left, thus letting in that streaming force which resolved itself as light, as love, as lifting energy. Thus worked the One for Whom all men must wait. He is as man, but works not as a man. He works as light divine, as energy supreme and as the Saviour of the world of men."

Let me again quote from the same source and give you the ancient names of the veils:

"Next to the earthly plane is found the Veil of Impulsion and then the Hall of Concentration. To that succeeds the Veil of Distortion, related to the world of glamour as impulsion is to force. Beyond that veil is found the Hall of Choice. And then we find another veil, the Veil of Separation, and beyond it lies the Hall of Blinded Men—blinded by light but facing towards the final veil, the Veil of Aspiration. Four veils, three halls and many men."

I will leave you to make due application of this paragraph of stated truth and of condensed realisation. I would remind you that concentration is one thing to the aspirant, and a very different thing to the initiate, and that the choices made by the initiate resemble not those made by the disciple. The blinding force referred to can range all the way from the deep spiritual darkness in which the average man moves, through the blindness of which Saul of Tarsus was the exponent, up to that condition which overwhelms the highest Initiate as He awaits entrance into the Council Chamber of the Lord.

Blindness is a prelude to initiation of no matter what degree. It is only at the last and highest initiation that the "tendency to blindness" comes to a complete end. In the early stages of evolution, blindness is natural, innate, unavoidable and impenetrable. For ages man walks in the dark. Then comes the stage wherein this normal blindness is a protection, but has also entered a phase wherein it can be overcome.

Technically speaking, the blindness to which I have referred is something different. From the moment when a human being catches the first, faint glimpse of the "something other" and sees himself in juxtaposition to that dimly sensed, distant reality, the blindness with which I have dealt is something imposed by the soul upon the hastening aspirant, so that the lessons of conscious experience, of discipleship, and later of initiation may be correctly assimilated and expressed; by its means, the hurrying seeker is defended from making too rapid and superficial progress.

It is depth and a profound "rootedness" for which the inner Teacher and later the Master looks, and "occult blindness," its need, its wise handling and its final elimination are part of the curriculum imposed upon the candidate. This truth is recognised, though not truly interpreted, by the Masonic Fraternity. In one of the most important and highest initiations, the candidate enters with unblinded eyes and no hoodwink is applied. Then, halfway through the ceremony, he is blinded, and in that condition passes through the terrific tests, symbolic of a certain high stage upon the Path.

Blindness is therefore, esoterically speaking, the place of learning and is related to the eye, throat and heart doctrine. It is not related to the dim vision, the sensing of half truths and the gropings of the aspirant in the process of learning about himself, or as he visions the goal and seeks to walk the Path. That is a familiar condition and one to which all beginners are subjected and which they cannot avoid for it is inherent in their natures. Occult blindness is spiritually induced and "blacks out" the glory and the promised attainment and reward. The disciple is thrown back upon himself. All he can see is his problem, his tiny field of experience, and his—to him—feeble and limited equipment.

It is to this stage that the prophet Isaiah refers when he speaks of giving to the struggling aspirant "the treasures of darkness." The beauty of the immediate, the glory of the present opportunity and the need to focus upon the task and service of the moment are the rewards of moving forward into the apparently impenetrable darkness. For the initiate, this blindness is still more esoteric; there remains for him absolutely no light whatsoever—no earth light nor any light within the three worlds at all.  There is only blackness. To this the mystic has given the name "the dark night of the soul." The true dark night (of which the mystic's dark night is only a dim reflection, to speak paradoxically) marks a very exalted state of Being and stage of development. It was into the blackness and darkness that Christ penetrated as He overshadowed one of His Masters, the Master Jesus upon the Cross. This will strike a new note for many, and can only now be revealed. It is concerned with the facility with which a Master participates in the experience, subjectively realised, of the disciples whom He has prepared for initiation.  It relates also to the still higher identification of the Christ with those initiates who are taking the fourth and fifth initiations, such as the Master Jesus in the experience referred to above.

Christ is no longer the Initiator, but stands to the initiate as the Master does to the disciple. It is a curious phase of "identical participation," which evokes no reaction from the Master or the Master of the Masters, the Christ, except in so far as it enables the divine Participator Himself to face another area of darkness, veiling and hiding a still more supernal glory. The above paragraph is far beyond the comprehension of the average student, but will be comprehended by those whose eyes are open to be blinded.

Students must remember that the four veils upon the etheric plane are only the lower symbolic correspondences to certain great areas of divine expression, and that ever the glory must be approached through the darkness. Such is the Law.  These higher veiling factors can be mentioned and enumerated, but more information concerning these mysteries, this separating darkness encountered by the initiate, may not be given:

1. VEIL I. That which faces the disciple as he wrestles with the Dweller on the Threshold and becomes conscious of the Angel of the Presence, though as yet he sees Him not.

2. VEIL II. That which the initiate encounters at the fourth initiation and which forces him to cry out in his blindness: "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me." The words uttered by the Christ at that time, and as the Participator, have been forgotten by the orthodox, though preserved by the esotericist. To them H.P.B. refers in The Secret Doctrine.

3. VEIL III. That mysterious blindness which overwhelms the initiate when—as the Embodiment of all the forces of the Spiritual Triad—He faces the Monad and is impelled forward by the "devastating Will" of the first aspect. Of this I may not write. It concerns the sixth and seventh initiations.

4. VEIL IV. That "unknown impenetrable Void, the utter darkness of negation" which Those Who are in the Council Chamber of the Lord of the World and Who are focussed in Shamballa face when the time comes for Them to "negate" our planetary life-expression and experience altogether. They must then leave behind all the seven planes of spiritual and human experience and pass onward and out into phases of Life and being for which we have no words, and of which we have no conception. They leave through the fourth veil on the cosmic physical etheric levels (on the highest plane of our seven planes) and pass on to the cosmic astral plane. There They negate its existence as They have earlier negated the existence of the astral plane, so familiar an illusion to all of us. The initiate passes on to the cosmic astral plane and finds—What? Who knows? I do not.

Thus the veils serve their purpose; blindness nurtures and protects, provided it is innate and natural, soul-imposed or spiritually engendered. If it is willfully self-induced, if it provides an alibi for grasped knowledge, if it is assumed in order to avoid responsibility, then sin enters in and difficulty ensues. From this may all of you be protected.

Step by step, the Brothers of the Light and others who tread consciously the Lighted Way have removed Themselves from the lure of form; the Army of the Voice no longer can succeed in deflecting Their footsteps and the veils of illusion no longer block Their vision and Their moving forward. A relative freedom has been gained and the initiate stands free from much that has hitherto hindered his progress; the world of form, of glamour and of seduction has for him no further appeal. He comprehends the significance of the injunction which is embodied in the third phrase of this tenth rule:

3. Let the Army of the Voice be no more heard, and let the brothers onward move within the Sound.

Putting the idea into esoteric terms, the above sentence could be paraphrased as follows: The voices and the Voice fade out. The A.U.M. is replaced by the O.M. and at the centre of that O.M. the brother stands.

The many voices of the world, the flesh and the devil are no longer distinguished; there is nothing within the consciousness of the initiate which can respond to them. The Voice of the Silence dies out also and the Word itself cannot be heard. Only the SOUND remains. This is the Sound which reverberates in the formless worlds; it is the Sound to which the Spiritual Triad responds and of which the initiate is a part, because the Sound which he makes as he proceeds upon his creative way is a part of the universal Sound. It should be pointed out that He Who stands at the very centre of the Council Chamber of Shamballa sounds forth all words, the Word, and He also utters the SOUND. This is apt to be forgotten. He it is Who intones the A.U.M. and all things come to be; He it is Who voices the Word, the O.M., and God incarnate in humanity appears on earth: He it is Who utters the SOUND, and upon that outgoing Breath holds all things in life; and—in the rise and fall of its cadences—there is found the cyclic rhythm of the creative process. He it will be Who will withdraw the Sound and centering the vibration within Himself, will some day bring to a close this periodic manifestation and carry the Sound to other localities in space, holding it in quiescence on the withdrawn breath until a later cycle of expression dawns. Then it will again be exhaled and sent forth to provide a new field of experience for the Lives which, in cyclic rhythm, again seek to manifest. The entire story of incarnation is hidden in the understanding of the SOUND and its differentiation into the O.M. and the A.U.M.

When we can identify the Sound and are no longer "moved" by the O.M., then the initiate becomes a Christ in expression and makes His appearance, either in physical form or upon the planes of what to us might be called the "areas of non-appearance." He can then contain and utilise the energies of which the Spiritual Triad is the custodian and which are the expression of the will and purpose of God.

Though the initiate may not be a part of the planetary government, and though he may not be a member of the Council at Shamballa (for only a limited number of initiates are so placed), he nevertheless has the right to move on identical levels and to prepare himself for those higher evolutionary processes which will give him entrance to the cosmic astral plane. This will enable him to "see through" and to recognise "cosmic glamour," and will give him the hidden key to the world of feeling and of sentiency of which our feeling-response and our emotional and intuitional sensitivity are but the dim and distorted reflections. This is a factor of some importance to have in mind if a right sense of proportion is to be developed.

The initiate has learnt on earth that the astral plane is in fact non-existent—at least for those of the higher degrees of initiation. This knowledge constitutes the first step towards the comprehension of the secret of negation, towards a true understanding of the basis of the ever-existent pairs of opposites, and towards the knowledge which lies behind the significance of negation. The above sentence is in all probability of little meaning to you, but it nevertheless contains a truth for which the trials, experiences and initiations of planetary existence prepare the initiate.  They endow him with those qualities which will enable him to contact cosmic evil and yet remain untouched, eventually to play his part in bringing the Black Lodge and its Brotherhood to an unholy finish. The roots of the Black Lodge are on the cosmic astral plane, as the roots of the White Lodge and its Brotherhood are on the cosmic mental plane; this is, in reality, only for the time being and in order to see certain organised activities upon the star Sirius perfected and carried to a consummation. This has oft been hinted in my writings.

"The Way of the Higher Evolution" leads to the cosmic astral plane, and the goal which carries a man there is the transcendent vision accorded at some of the higher initiations; the quality which enables him to work as a creative factor in the great White Lodge is the developed buddhic faculty. It is upon the "wings of Sound" that he travels, to use a well-known though little understood metaphor. This can only be when he can

4. Hear the O.M. as it is sounded forth by Him Who stands and waits at the very centre of the Council Chamber of the Lord.

These are grave and solemn thoughts, and of small use to the average reader. It is essential, however, that he avoid the concept that the attainment of the highest initiation upon this planet marks the end or the consummation of a great and final stage. It only marks the beginning of significance. This is a statement of esoteric value. Just as the attainment of physical control sets the neophyte free for the learning of higher lessons in preparation for the major initiations, so the surmounting of the conditions presented by the seven planes of our planetary life sets the initiate (such as the Buddha or the Christ) free for still higher and more important conditioning circumstances. Their real work as Members of the White Brotherhood is on the point of beginning, and the true purpose of the existence of the Great White Lodge begins faintly to dawn upon Their entranced and amazed understanding.  It is of real value to us, therefore, to endeavour to grasp the continuity of revelation and the vast future or vista of unfolding wonder which, stage by stage, grade by grade and plane by plane, unfolds before the initiate-consciousness.

We enter here into a consideration of realms of advancement of which even advanced humanity has no faintest idea; we are touching upon goals and objectives which confront the advanced Members of the Hierarchy; we are dealing with ideas and concepts for which we have no adequate terminology and which are of such a nature that the human mechanism of thought proves incapable of registering them. What, for instance, do the words or phrases, "Divine purpose, Shamballa, the Lord of the World, states of registration or awareness which have no relation to sentiency as it expresses itself through consciousness, the Lodge on Sirius" and similar concepts convey to you?

I would venture to suggest that in reality, they represent nothing, and this because the goal of all who read these words is contact with the soul, recognition of and by the Hierarchy, and initiation. If I say to you that the words "the O.M., as it is sounded forth by Him Who stands within the confines of Shamballa" signify that the one Sound, rounded and full, of O is sounded forth, but that the concluding sound of the M is omitted, does that convey aught to your intelligence? Again I venture to say that it does not. It is therefore of small importance for me to enlarge upon this phase of the Rules. I would be more profitably employed if I elucidated somewhat the meaning of the words "the Council Chamber of the Lord." Three concepts have perchance taken shape in your minds in connection with Shamballa, if you have sought the true esoteric attitude:

1. That Humanity exists as a great centre of intelligent energy in the substance of the planetary Life.

2. That the spiritual centre, where attractive, coherent, magnetic energy is focussed and from whence it flows in two directions, is what we usually call the Hierarchy, the Kingdom of God, the centre of love and of mediating understanding (note these last two words):

• Towards the three worlds and the four kingdoms of nature,

• Towards Shamballa and the two higher kingdoms in manifestation

3. That there is another centre which is neither spiritual nor human but which is characterised by divinity. Divinity is the expression of the will or purpose of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being. That centre where the will of God is focussed and dynamically sent forth to carry out the purpose is Shamballa.

The time has now come when a distinction must be made by esotericists between the words "spiritual" and "divine."  They are not the same, nor do they have the same significance.  The quality of spirituality is Love. The quality of divinity is Will. There is a definite distinction between the two and the mediating principle (or that which relates or unites the two qualities) is Wisdom. Of that Wisdom the Buddha was the expression in time and space; that means that there was only a relative and limited manifestation of that fusing linking principle. His great achievement, unrealised by Him, was an innate and (at that time, not now) unconscious recognition of the distinction between love and will, and an ability to express in Himself a fusing, blending energy which could and did bring together love and will, soul and Monad. At the same time (and later in full expression in Palestine) the Christ demonstrated—for the teaching of humanity—the at-one-ment of love and intelligence, of soul and personality. These are points of real importance to have in mind.

Embodying, therefore, divinity in a sense and form incomprehensible to disciples, and which constitutes the goal of such advanced individuals as the Christ, are a group of Lives or focussed integrated Beings Who stand around Sanat Kumara, the Lord of the World.

As I have earlier said, Sanat Kumara is to the Planetary Logos what the personality, plus soul, is to the disciple. He is also the coherent force within the planet, holding, through His radiatory influence, all forms and all substances in the planetary form so that they constitute one coherent, energised and functioning whole. A parallel to this, though on a much smaller scale, can be seen in the radiatory influence of the Christ as it permeates, energises and holds in coherent expression the Christian Church in all its many aspects in the world; a still smaller analogy can be seen in the influence wielded by a disciple who stands at the centre of a group and holds it also in coherent and useful manifestation.

Intermediate between these two symbols of will and love, united in manifestation (the Christ and a disciple), is the work of a world disciple, for the influence is wider and more far-reaching than that of a disciple, yet not as potent or comprehensive as that of the Christ.

Coherency, affecting lives, forms and substances, is an expression of will and purpose, motivated by love and implemented intelligently in carrying forward the plans through which the Purpose seeks expression. When, however, you arrive at the potency of such a Being as Sanat Kumara, you find His individual potency enhanced and amplified by the fused ability of a group of Lives Who—though not as far advanced as He is upon the Path of Evolution which stretches before the Planetary Logoi—are yet greatly in advance of the most developed members of the spiritual Hierarchy. It is these Lives Who constitute the innermost circle of the Council Chamber of the Lord of the World.  Their normal contacts are extra-planetary and are very seldom of a planetary nature. They are in direct rapport with the Planetary Logos upon His own high plane, the cosmic mental plane; this great and Unknown Being uses Sanat Kumara as the soul uses a temporary personality when that personality is at an advanced stage of initiate consciousness. This is only a parallel and an analogy and must not be unduly elaborated in the detail of relationship.

The major characteristic of these Lives is Will or Purpose. They embody and consciously know and intelligently appreciate what is the motivating idea which the Planetary Logos—working consciously on His own high level—seeks to work out and achieve in His planned incarnation through a planet. He functions when in incarnation on the cosmic physical plane, and embodies the seven principles of which we know, and all is focussed in and through the Individuality of Sanat Kumara, implemented and energised through the seven planetary centres. The three Buddhas of Activity (Who are also Members of the Great Council) are expressions of the counterparts on cosmic levels of the energies latent in the three permanent atoms in the three worlds of human endeavour. This is again a dangerous parallel to propose for—as a symbol—it lacks any true analogy.

The Seven Spirits before the Throne of God are also Members of the Council, and each of Them is in close rapport and contact with one or other of the seven sacred planets in our solar system, and can thus draw upon the energies which they embody.

It will therefore be apparent to you inferentially, how comparatively few of the Members of our Hierarchy have yet been able to reach the state or condition of development which would warrant Their forming a part of the great Council, or which would enable them to respond to the O, sounded out at intervals of one hundred years by Sanat Kumara. It is this sound which gathers together the responsive Units into the Council. This Council is held at one hundred year intervals, and as far as our modern humanity is concerned, these Councils have been held—under our arbitrary dates—in 1725, 1825, 1925.

At these Councils, Those Who are responsible for the planetary development, along certain predetermined lines, make Their reports; decision is made as to new unfoldments; certain types of energy, cosmic and solar, are made available for the carrying forward of the Plans which implement the Purpose; the evolution of consciousness in the three worlds receives, necessarily, major attention. I would have you remember that this refers not only to the human kingdom and its unfoldment, but to the three subhuman kingdoms also which are—from many points of view—of equal importance to the human. This is a hard saying for humanity to accept.

It is these great goals which slowly dawn on the consciousness of the initiate as he advances step by step along the Path of Initiation. They must perforce be noted here, even if dealing with matters incomprehensible to the reader; initiation otherwise would be apt to be regarded as the attainment of a relatively static condition and would land the initiate in an eternal impasse or impassable cul-de-sac. Initiation is in fact the recognition of the goals which are implemented from Shamballa. It is not a process whereby a man becomes solely a Member of the Spiritual Hierarchy. Initiation (as the candidate understands it) is in reality only incidental and preparatory to the Path of the Higher Evolution.

33. RULE ELEVEN

I would like to speak, at this point in our discussion of the fourteen rules for initiates, upon the theme of group initiation; these rules are those to which groups that are seeking, in unison, a group expansion of consciousness, must learn to conform. It is for this reason that I have hitherto omitted to go into detail in relating these rules to the seven centres or, specifically, to the great seven solar initiations. Of these seven initiations only five concern average humanity. The remaining two initiations concern only  those who are willing to meet certain unusual requirements and to produce that special effort which entitles them to the appellation, "Victors, through the clear pure will."

Group initiation is no easy achievement, particularly as it is practically an untried experiment and constitutes essentially a pioneering effort. That such a development was inevitable, if the evolutionary growth of humanity proved in any way satisfactory, was early realised by the Hierarchy. However, it has taken millenia of years to make it seem—as an hypothetical effort—in any way possible, and only tentative experiments have as yet been attempted. The first objective of these experiments (going on quietly in various places all over the world) is to see if a group of disciples can work together in such a manner that an inner fusion can be seen—by the Masters—to be taking place.

The results, hitherto, have not been encouraging. It has, for one thing, been difficult to find disciples who are approximately at the same point in evolution, whose rays are "shining through" adequately, and who can evidence some one quality, or some controlling theme (if I may use such a phrase) which they share in unison and which would suffice to hold them together and prove strong enough to offset personality differences, preferences and barriers. It has not been possible, as yet, to do this. Group after group has been tried and tested out by different Masters in various parts of the world, and hitherto all such attempts have proved failures. When I use the word "failure" I mean failure from the angle of the planned objective. From the angle of the individual growth of any particular disciple there has not necessarily been failure; from the angle of the unwitting, general public, the publication of Discipleship in the New Age will prove in years to come an epochal success.

It might be of value to consider briefly what group initiation involves, and to do this factually and not sentimentally and aspirationally. One of the problems confronting the Hierarchy in this connection is the elimination of sentiment—that curious, emotional reaction and relationship which links all the members of a group together in the bonds of liking or disliking. Where there is liking, then too strong a personality relation is established, as far as the good of the group is concerned. The group equilibrium is disturbed. Where there is disliking, the inner faculty of rebuff works constantly, and cleavages then occur.

Is it not true, my brothers, that your relation to each other is frequently subjected to the impact of approval or of disapproval? When that attitude exists, the first steps towards group fusion are absent. This is what we mean by sentiment, and this emotional reaction must disappear as a preliminary stage. I speak not at this time anent impersonality. For some people, impersonality is simply an escape mechanism from responsibility; for others, it connotes suppression and entails such hard labour that the entire time of the disciple is given to the achievement of impersonality, thereby guaranteeing non-success. That at which you strenuously strive and which assumes undue place in your thinking, in due time becomes itself a prison and merits later destruction. Such is the occult law.  Impersonality is possible only to the disciple who knows truly how to love, and to him who sees life and its phantasmagoria (including all associated persons) in the light of the Spiritual Triad.

It is to this that Rule XI primarily refers, and it will not be possible for you to comprehend the significance of this rule unless there is a measure of clarity in your minds anent true group relationships. Such relationships are not based upon personality or impersonality, or upon liking or disliking, or on criticism or non-criticism, but upon a real comprehension of "divine indifference," spiritual detachment and deep, persistent, unchanging love. To many earnest aspirants the juxtaposition of these phrases will seem paradoxical; but an understanding of the occult paradoxes tends to liberation. In the comprehension of these basic attitudes lies the first lesson of the aspirant to participation in group initiation.

The second point which the group thus striving has to grasp is the necessity for the utilisation of the force of destruction. A group is brought together under karmic law, ashramic necessity and soul direction. Immediately there is presented to the watching Masters an opportunity for the very definite training of some willing aspirants, but also an equally definite point of tension, indicating real difficulty. There is little, in reality, to link these people except inclination, a joint aspiration and a goal seen and held in unison.

The outstanding characteristic of such a group is spiritual selfishness. This statement may surprise you until a close scrutiny of your own heart is undergone, and then I venture to predict that you will discover that it is not divine love of humanity that has enabled you to find your way into the outer group of some Ashram but desire for development, for achievement and for liberation. The first step, therefore, is to recognise this and hence the injunction so oft misunderstood: Kill out desire.  This has to be the first destructive activity of the disciple. It is not what the disciple seeks, or wants or desires which should condition him and drive him to what we might call "ashramic acquiescence," but the all-impelling motive of world need. So the disciple begins to rid himself of desire by a process of attrition. He does not positively fight desire with a view to its elimination; he does not seek to transmute it (as should the probationary disciple), but he ceases to give it any recognition; he fails to provide it with the needed stimulation of attention, for as ever, energy follows thought; he is preoccupied with world need and with the service he can render, and—almost inadvertently, as it were—desire dies of attrition.

It will be apparent to you, therefore, that it will take time for all the members of a group to achieve the destruction of individual desire, and that until some measure of this united liberating process is attained, the group cannot go forward together as a unit on the Way of Initiation.

The next step is the destruction of the ties which link the personalities of the group members. These must be severed, and the relation between the group members must be on the basis of soul activity, joint pledge to the Master of the Ashram, and a united service given to humanity. There comes a point of freedom in the group relation which will demonstrate in some definitely planned and united activity, carried forward in the outer world but enriching the life of the Ashram. Until this stage is reached, the activity of the group corresponds to that of the probationary disciple and not to that of the pledged disciple. The spontaneously emerging group work, engendered by the group consciousness and fusing the entire group of disciples at a point of tension in service, is the first indication that the group is ready for further teaching, for an intensification of its group potency and for a closer relation to the Master.

This has all been brought about by the group itself, independently of any injunction of the Master, and as a result of the united soul life of the group effectively making its presence felt. These two spiritually destructive processes—the destruction of desire and the severing of all personality ties—are the first two and essential results of true group work.

The third quality which must be utterly rooted out and destroyed is that of all reaction towards recognition, whether that recognition is accorded by the world of men, by other disciples, or by the Master. The ability to work without any token of recognition, to see others claim the reward of action taken, and even to be unaware that the results of the good initiated by the individual disciple or his group are claimed by others, are the hallmarks of the hierarchical worker. The Masters get no recognition for the work done by Their disciples, though They initiated the original impulse and have given both guidance and direction; the disciple carries out the Plan; he shoulders the responsibility; he pays the price, either good or bad, or the karmic results of instituted activity, and he is the one who gains the recognition of the crowd. But—until the disciple seeks no recognition, until he fails to think in terms of results and is unaware of the reaction of the world to his work as an individual disciple—he has yet far to go in order to gain the higher initiations. The entire problem becomes increasingly difficult when an entire ashramic group is concerned, for the recognition of the group service seems little to ask from the world which is served; nevertheless, such a demand and such an expectation delay the complete absorption of the group into the inner Ashram.

These are not, however, impossible objectives, or I would not waste your time or mine in their delineation. The group can measure up to the occult necessity if unitedly they recognise the scope of the endeavour and unitedly strive for complete absorption in service—an absorption so deep that it excludes all other recognitions, particularly those of a personal nature. We come back, therefore (as is continually the case), to the fact that when a group can arrive at a suitable point of united tension, non-essential reactions disappear and undesirable qualities are automatically removed.

These three types of work along the lines of destruction merit your careful consideration and—because they are along the line of the destroying aspect—it will be apparent to you that the method employed is that of the utilisation of the group Will. It will be equally apparent that the group Will can only make its appearance under the Law of Occult Continuity when, and if, the group is functioning intelligently and demonstrating love adequately.

We now come to the third factor which group initiation involves. This is diversity in unity, consciously recognised and utilised. A group is not composed of disciples all of whom are being prepared for the same initiation. This is oft a hard saying for group members to accept. The significance of my earlier statement, that a group is composed of men and women all of whom are at the same point in evolution, is a generalisation and simply means that all of them have reached the point where they are pledged and unalterably committed to the work of the Ashram, under some particular Master.

The work, however, requires a diversity of quality and of potencies in order to be effective in manifestation upon the outer plane. It needs those who are in close contact with the Master, and are therefore initiates of a certain standing; it needs also those who have facility of relationship with the inner Ashram and are therefore senior disciples, though not necessarily high initiates; it needs also those not so advanced upon the Path of Discipleship because they have, or can establish, a close connection with ordinary humanity in the life of everyday. A group of disciples such as this is consequently a miniature hierarchy, and a hierarchy exists in its various degrees in order to permit of a wide range of effective relationships. Ponder on this statement.  

You can see now why there is necessity for the elimination of personality reactions, for only thus could the groups function as a coordinated unit with the various members recognising each other's status and yet not moved to jealousy or belittlement thereby; the work is then carried forward on the basis of inspiration, coordination and practical application. The senior members of the group, and those with the most advanced status (whatever that may be), provide the incentive of the Plan as they receive it from the Master; the more experienced among the disciples then coordinate the Plan within the group, relating it to the Ashram and indicating its approach to the world of men; the neophytes—pledged and dedicated though yet without experience—carry out the Plan upon the physical plane. This entails, as you can see, smooth and effective coordination, a proper attention to the general picture, and an application of the detail of work to the immediate necessity. It is a hard task for a group of intensely individualistic disciples (and all disciples are individual) to begin to take the first steps towards these attitudes and the relationships which distinguish the Hierarchy as a whole.

Still another important factor in the group preparation for initiation is the cultivation of silence. How, we ask ourselves at times when the functioning of the Ashram is under discussion, can we train our disciples to realise that, essentially, silence is not refraining from speech. So many disciples seem to think that it is, and that they have to learn not to talk if they hope to take initiation. Some would do a great deal better if they talked more than they do—along right lines.  

The silence imposed in an Ashram is refraining from certain lines of thought, the elimination of reverie and the unwholesome use of the creative imagination.  Speech is consequently controlled at its source, because speech is the result of certain inner sources of ideas, of thought and of imagination; it is the precipitation (at a certain point of saturation, if I might so express it) of inner reservoirs which overflow on to the physical plane. The retention of speech and the suppression of words, if they are the result of a realisation that what is to be said is wrong, or undesirable, or unwise, or wasteful, of energy will simply increase the inner banking up and will lead eventually to a still more violent display of words at a later date; it may also bring about serious and disastrous conditions within the astral body of the disciple.

The silence of thought is to be cultivated and, my brothers, I do not mean silent thinking. I mean that certain lines of thought are refused admission; certain habits of thinking are eradicated and certain approaches to ideas are not developed. This is done by a process of substitution, and not by a violent process of suppression. The initiate learns to keep his thought apparatus in a certain effective condition. His thoughts do not intermingle the one with the other, but are contained in separate compartments or carefully filed for reference and later use. There are certain layers of thought (again speaking symbolically) which are held within the Ashram itself and are never permitted to enter the mind of the disciple or the initiate when not consciously working in the Ashram; others are related to the group and its work and are given free play within the group ring-pass-not; still others are of a more mundane nature and govern the daily life and relationships of the disciple with personalities and with the affairs of civilised living and physical plane events. These are only indications of what I mean, but will suffice to show (if you duly meditate) a little of what is meant by the silence of the initiate. Within the permitted levels of contact, speech is free and unimpeded; outside those levels, no indication is given that the other spheres of thought activity, with their conditioning speech, even exist. Such is the silence of the initiated disciple.

We have therefore considered briefly but suggestively four qualities which a group preparing for initiation needs to develop, to consider and unitedly to achieve. They are:

1. The achieving of a non-sentimental group interrelation.

2. Learning how to use the forces of destruction constructively.

3. Attaining the power to work as a miniature Hierarchy, and as a group to exemplify unity in diversity.

4. Cultivating the potency of occult silence.

RULE XI

Let the group together move the fire within the Jewel in the Lotus into the Triad and let them find the Word which will carry out that task. Let them destroy by their dynamic Will that which has been created at the midway point. When the point of tension is reached by the brothers at the fourth great cycle of attainment, then will this work be done.

On first reading this rule it is obvious that it concerns the fourth initiation and the consequent destruction of the causal body—the vehicle through the means of which the Monad has created first of all the personality, and then an instrument for the expression of the second divine aspect. We are therefore dealing with one of the major initiations. I would here call to your recollection the fact that (from the angle of the Hierarchy) this initiation is the second major initiation, and not the fourth, as it is regarded from the human angle; the third initiation is technically regarded as the first major initiation. The major initiations are really possible only after the transfiguration of the personality.

What, therefore, brings about the destruction of the soul body? The destroying agent is the second aspect of the Will. The third or lowest aspect of the Will, working through the mind or the manasic principle, was the sustaining factor in the long cycle of personality development; it was the principle of intelligent synthesis, holding the life principle intact and individualised through the long series of successive incarnations.  During that cycle the will demonstrated first as the lower man; then it focussed itself in the Son of Mind, the divine Agnishvatta, the soul, and became increasingly a factor of potency.

Later, as the disciple builds the antahkarana and thus establishes a direct channel of communication between the Monad and the personality, the lower mind becomes fused with the abstract mind or higher mind (the manasic principle, sublimated and purified), and gradually the soul is—to use a peculiar but sensitively expressing word—by-passed. It has by now served its purpose.  Love and light are in expression in the physical plane life. Neither the personality vehicle nor the soul body is required, as under the old conditions. Their place can now be taken by the Spiritual Triad and the Monad; the essential life of both the lower aspects (creative in nature and expressive of loving intent as to purpose) can now be withdrawn. Triplicity, from the angle of the three periodical vehicles—Monad, soul and personality—is resolved into duality, and the Monad (reflected in the Triad) can now work upon the lower planes through the medium of a definitely created personality or "point of tension" in the three worlds. It is to this that the rule applies when studied in terms of the individual initiate, whilst the life in which the soul is "by-passed" and its ring-pass-not is destroyed, is of such profound difficulty that it is called the life of crucifixion or of renunciation.

We are, however, concerned with the interpretation of the rule as it affects a group which is preparing for the joint initiation of its members. It is by adhering to the ancient dictum that "as it is with the Macrocosm so will it be with the microcosm," and by the application, therefore, of the Law of Analogy, that we shall eventually arrive at understanding. I cannot hope to do more than indicate significances, but it will now be clear to you why I have dealt with the four qualities which a group must develop in unison prior to initiation. We shall find it useful to relate these qualities to the various phrases or injunctions in this Rule XI. We must consider each of them separately. Let us now look at the first sentence.

1. Let the group together move the fire within the Jewel in the Lotus into the Triad.

Let me first remind you that fire always connotes the first aspect and this, as you know, is the life aspect. To this let me add the well-known fact that "Our God is a consuming fire," and call to your recollection that the first aspect is the destroyer aspect. You have immediately established a relation between the first two qualities with which we have been dealing and the work of the crucifixion as a symbolic expression of the fourth initiation. The achieving of a selfless and impersonal group interrelation was the first prerequisite, and the word "together" in this rule deals with the work of the group when—as a closely knit unit—it can move forward. This transference of the life or of the fire has to be the result of united action, taken by the group when full interior unity has been attained. It cannot take place prior to this, any more than an individual initiate can take this particular initiation until such time as complete fusion of the three bodies and the soul has been effectually brought about and divine indifference has been achieved to all lower reactions of the component parts of the fused and interrelated instrument. So must it be with the group.

The group life must express itself upon the physical plane and in group formation. It will possess a sensitive feeling apparatus, corresponding to the astral body, and the group mind will be well organised and functioning rhythmically. Thus the group "personality" will be active, but divinely active, by the time this particular stage is reached. The group soul will also be in full flower as an expression of the inner Ashram, and at the very heart of the group life, veiled and hidden by its outer personality expression and by its vibrant loving soul, will be a point of living fire or life which—in due time and under right conditions—must be transferred into the inner Ashram, found on triadal levels.  This may or may not mean the destruction of the group causal body and the establishing of a direct line of relationship between the pure Ashram and a group of disciples. It will undoubtedly mean, during the stages preliminary to that desirable attainment, a definite change of focus and the gradual establishing of a point of tension upon slowly realised higher levels, carried on until the transference is completed.

All the time that this is taking place, the fire at the heart of the group life is becoming more and more vital, and consequently more and more spiritually destructive. The second quality which we considered, the constructive planned use of the forces of destruction, can now be seen as active. It is these forces which are often responsible for the upheavals, the cleavages, the dispersions and the fatalities which are so frequently the characteristics of the group life in its early stages.

The fire is then working under the stimulation of the Spiritual Triad, but is not consciously being manipulated by the group itself. The group becomes esoterically "a burning ground," and much time would be saved and much unnecessary distress and pain and suffering would be eliminated if the group members would realise what was happening to them and would simply stand steady until such time as the "purification so as by fire" has been completed and the life principle in the group heart can shine forth with both brilliance and radiance.  It is this quality of patient endurance which is so sorely needed by the members of a group being prepared for initiation.

Once, however, the purpose underlying all distressing events and disrupted personnel is grasped, rapid progress can be made—again by the simple practice of divine indifference. This divine indifference was the outstanding quality of the Master upon the Cross at Calvary. The seven words from the Cross were concerned with others, with His mission, with world need, and with relationship with the Father or with the Monad. But disciples and aspirants are so intensely preoccupied with themselves, their effect upon others, their endurances and pain, or with criticism of their brothers or of themselves! The goal and the main objective is not adequately emphasised in their consciousness. The group personality is often functioning with potency, but the fusing love of the soul is absent and the shattering inflow of the life at the heart of the Jewel is not permitted full sway. It is blocked and intercepted by group conditions, and until there is at least some united will to take together what is needed in order to shift the life of the group to higher levels of awareness and into the Ashram on buddhic levels, the technique of transference will not be committed to the group by the Master. That is what is meant by the next sentence in the rule:

2. Let them find the Word which will carry out that task.

What is this technique of transference? It falls into three stages, each one of which has to be arrived at by the group in unison. The first is the stage of united tension or the attaining of such a focal point of planned and focussed intent that the group is undeviatingly oriented to the immediate task to be done and is functioning from the angle of purpose as one individual. This is perhaps the hardest stage, but it has to be mastered prior to the assistance of the Master in the inner Ashram; He is to the group what the Monad is to the disciple, ever seeking to bring about the esoteric "renunciation" of the causal vehicle.

This point of tension has to be held in high vibratory activity all through the process of transference. I would remind you that the outstanding characteristic of Jesus of Nazareth, throughout the period prior to the crucifixion, was one of complete silence; here is where the efficacy of the fourth quality mentioned by me appears. The group, at this stage, is so preoccupied with the task ahead and so conscious of the need for preserving a united and uniform tension, that "the silence of the secret place" settles on it and the work can then proceed apace. When this point has been attained, then the third quality manifests with power to work as a miniature hierarchy, and this becomes increasingly noticeable.

Now comes the result of all these preliminary stages, and it comes spontaneously and automatically. I want to emphasise that the group does not wait in expectancy for a Word to be given to it; it does not search and strive to discover a Word; it does not take some Word as may be suggested by a helpful disciple and then proceed to "empower it." The Word is the result of the point of tension; it emerges from the silence and its first expression is simply the slowly rising tempo of the group "Sound" or note. As you know, every individual and every group of individuals have their own peculiar note or sound which is the creative agent of the focussed group life.

At this point we again touch the fringe of the coming Science of Invocation. This group sound, rising as the tension increases and stabilises, is invocatory in effect and draws forth response eventually from the inner Ashram, owing to its relation to the outer group. When the response of the Master is registered in the group consciousness and His potency is added to the potency of the group, the sound emitted by the group changes in quality, is amplified and diversified, is enriched and then precipitated outside the ring-pass-not of the group life; this precipitation takes the form of a Word.

This Word, being the result of group activity; focus and tension, plus the aid of the Master, brings about three results:

1. It produces fusion between the outer group and the inner Ashram.

2. It enables the group life to be transferred along the group antahkarana and focusses it once and for all in the Master's Ashram.

3. The result of this transference is twofold:

1. The outer group dies, occultly speaking.

2. The soul of the group, being now merged with the life aspect on levels higher than those on which the causal body exists, is no longer of major importance; the Great Renunciation takes place, and the causal body—having served its purpose—dies and is destroyed. So died, according to theological injunction, the Christ upon the Cross. Yet He died not, and still lives, and by His life are all souls saved.

It is hard for esoteric students to realise that the emphasis of the coming Schools of Enlightenment will be upon the life aspect, and not upon contact with the soul.  The goal will be transference and not union. Aspirants and disciples today are largely the result of the old order of teaching and are the flower of the processes to which humanity has been subjected.  This is a vital transition period; disciples and aspirants in the world at this time are, figuratively speaking, at the same stage as the group which we are considering—the stage of the transference of the life from the outer form into the inner being. Hence the difficulty with which you are all faced, and the arduous task it is to comprehend realistically that which I am attempting to convey.  The problem of soul contact is something which you can and do grasp, at least theoretically. The problem of life transference from the highest point of present attainment into some vague and mystical spiritual focus is not so easy to understand. Forget not, I am not looking for understanding for I write for those who will come after you, and —for those who will be the reincarnated aspects of your present selves.

You will note, therefore, how the four qualities dealt with  have enabled the group to achieve the sounding of the Word. That Word, now emitted by them as a group under the inspiration of the Master (and I use the word "inspiration" advisedly), has gone forth; it has passed beyond the sphere of the immediate group influence; it has made its initial impact upon the soul of the group and has vitalised to a new potency the life aspect, the Jewel in the Lotus of the soul. Now comes the possibility of fulfilling the third great injunction contained in this rule:

3. Let them destroy by their dynamic Will that which has been created at the midway point.

In the fulfillment of the requirement here enjoined, the group enters upon its major test in this work of transference. The group members have unitedly preserved the point of tension; unitedly they have created the antahkarana; unitedly they have invoked by the group sound the attention of the Master and of the Master's Ashram; unitedly that sound has taken the form of a Word, and that Word has made an impact upon the life aspect of the group within the form of the group soul; it has energised it so that the destruction of the causal body is now in order. The tendency of the group would then be to relax, and this quite normally; the irretrievable Word has gone forth and all is well and safely accomplished. But it is not so in verity. By the power of their united love, the group has mastered personnel difficulties and has developed together the four qualities; it has also found the Word which can affect the soul—for the Word is ever related to the second aspect, and because of that it can reach and energise the soul, the second aspect per se.

But now, in the final stages of the great work of transference, the group has to arrive at a new point of tension and of united attainment. It has to use the dynamic will, the energy of the first aspect, and so bring about the final destruction of the causal body. The life within the causal body has been stimulated and vitalised and is now seeking to break out of its confining form.

The vehicle of the soul is being subjected to pressure from within but then—both in the case of the individual initiate and of the initiated group—the final blow has to be struck also from without, by an act of the united will; this corresponds to the great cry of the Christ upon the Cross when He exclaimed "It is finished." With these words, we are told, the veil of the Temple was rent from the top to the bottom, and the life of the Christ ascended to the Father. Ponder upon the significances of these phrases. "That which has been created at the midway point" is no longer needed. No mediating principle or intermediary between man and the Father is any longer required; the Monad and the personality are in complete at-one-ment and have achieved perfected relationship; triplicity has given place to duality, and the Way of the Higher Evolution stands open before the initiate.

It will be obvious that this phase of group attainment can as yet be only a hope. It lies far ahead of the present day groups, just as the fourth initiation lies far ahead of the average aspirant or disciple. But groups must have their goals and must strive towards the vision, just as the individual must; I am laying the foundation for the phase of group living and united striving which will be so distinctive an aspect of the coming era. There are three further points which I seek to make:

First, the attainment of the ability to use the group will dynamically can be more easily understood if it is realised that it means the extension of the point of tension into realms which involve the super-consciousness of the disciple; also that the release of the life aspect from the confines of the causal body produces a new cycle of invocation and invocative activity. This brings about an inflow of the destroyer aspect of the divine Will, and consequently the complete destruction of the causal vehicle.

Secondly, it is not to be inferred that all in the group must be disciples who are in process of taking the fourth initiation. A group can be composed of disciples and initiates of all degrees, though there must be among the group personnel at least one disciple who has taken the initiation of crucifixion. This necessity is symbolised for us in the close relation which existed between Jesus as He took this initiation and the Christ Who had taken it in an earlier state of life. The more diversified the group, the richer its life and possibilities. Forget this not.

One hint I can give you upon this difficult subject: When the results of the first point of tension, prior to the emergence of the Word, have been reached, initiates of the fourth degree within the Ashram lend their aid and do much to make possible the attainment of the goal by the group.

Thirdly, I would have you note that I have given you much in a brief form and have added much of new information anent the fourth initiation. What I have said is applicable both to the individual aspirant and to a group seeking initiation. Read what I have said with attention, but remember that it is not yet possible for you to differentiate between what is symbolic and what may be factual. The secrets of initiation are thus guarded with care.

One simple rule towards comprehension and attainment ever holds good. The Great Renunciation becomes possible only when the practice of the little renunciations governs the life of a disciple and a group. The renouncing of ambition, of all personality ties, and the renunciation of all that hinders progress as it is revealed to the eye of the soul, lays a sound foundation for the final great transference, based upon the renunciation of that which for aeons has connoted beauty, truth and goodness, and which has seemed the ultimate goal of all aspirational effort. The endeavour to see that which lies ahead and beyond the apparent finality of soul fusion faces disciples, among them some of you, at this time; and that all of you may penetrate beyond the veil of the soul and eventually see that veil "rent from the top to the bottom," and thus be enabled to say with those of like degree "It is finished" is my earnest hope. Then will open for you as for others, the Way of the Higher Evolution, and the glory of the Lord will be seen in a new light—a light which will dim and throw into the shade all previous goals and visions.

34. RULE TWELVE

The Rule which we have now to consider carries us into realms of extra-planetary energy, into a world of a larger consciousness towards which the higher initiates strive and which is related in a peculiar way to both the past and the future. This rule might also be called the formula controlling the work of the World Servers.

The three remaining rules for initiates and disciples are concerned with the work of the New Age and the coming revelation which will make that work both new and possible.  They are therefore of supreme importance to us. Step by step, in the eleven rules already studied, we have seen the initiate or disciple carried from his position as an accepted disciple standing before the Angel of the Presence, to that point of attainment where the spiritual will is released in full service and with full comprehension at the time of the fourth initiation, where atma or pure spirit is in control, where the Spiritual Triad is expressing the nature of the Monad, where identification with the purpose of deity has transcended illumination of the mind, and has also transcended cooperation through pure love with the Plan. These words are all attempts to indicate the path of progress which is—to the initiate consciousness—the necessary preparatory stage to treading the Path of the Higher Evolution, just as the Probationary Path is the necessary preparatory stage to being accepted into an Ashram. Briefly, the eleven rules already dealt with might be regarded as controlling the conscious activity of the initiate in the following stages and relationships.

1. The stage of the burning ground and the establishment of illumined group relation. This is revealed by the mind, functioning as an aspect of the group mind.

2. The stage of ashramic recognition and the establishing of a forward-moving group rhythm; these reciprocal activities produce a needed group tension.

3. The stage of emitting the group sound and the establishing of the power to invoke divinity, followed by a united group realisation that "God is Fire."

4. The stage of extinguishing the lesser fires through the means of the above realisation, and the establishing of a defined group reaction to the divine purpose or will; this results eventually in the negation of the Laws of Karma and Rebirth as they condition life in the three worlds.

5. The stage of triadal perception and the establishing of spiritual contact, thus negating both the life of form and the soul. Duality is no longer recognised.

6. The stage of identification with the life aspect and the establishing of complete divine integration into the greater Whole. The initiate then moves onward in life and not in consciousness—a concept and a truth which it is not possible for you to understand at this time.

7. The stage of a group sounding-forth of the Word and establishing direct relation with Shamballa as an integral part of the Hierarchy. This means the enunciation of a dual chord.

8. The stage of responding to the higher aspects of the seven Ray Lives and establishing contact with the Three and the One. This is done under the Law of the Supplementary Seven.

9. The stage of spiritual negation, as it is called. This establishes a new affirmative attitude and results in a recognition of the true nature of the One Initiator.

10. The stage of the dissipation of all veils and the establishing of the power to work with light energy, thus earning the reward of new utilised ability, i.e., the ability to work with the consciousness aspect in all forms.

11. The stage where the potencies of the death aspect of divine purpose can be used to carry out divine purpose, plus the establishing of complete identification (as a group) with the divine will. This marks the period of the Great Renunciation and prefaces the complete transition out of the Fourth Creative Hierarchy, the human kingdom.

This is a brief and inadequate summation of the more general and the more easily comprehended results of obedience to these rules. The initiate stands free and becomes consequently a dynamic factor within the working Hierarchy. Rule XII now becomes clear to him, not only through the realisation induced by his illumined mind, but through the higher divine qualities which are related to the expression of the will and purpose of the planetary Logos.

It will of course be obvious to you that only those who have reached the stages of work described in Rules X and XI will truly comprehend my meaning. I would warn you again that the obvious significance of the remaining three rules is not in reality the true spiritual significance because we are in these rules dealing with the planned work of the Hierarchy during the next great cycle, that of the Aquarian Age, we shall therefore be considering those activities and plans which will usher in and mature that new culture and civilisation which will slowly come into being when the world has straightened itself out after the processes of the world war (1914-1945).

Rule XII

Let the group serve as Aquarius indicates; let Mercury speed the group upon the upward Way and let Taurus bring illumination and the attainment of the vision; let the mark of the Saviour, as the group toils in Pisces, be seen above the aura of the group.

You will remember that the rule as given to applicants emphasised:

1. The use of the hands in service for healing, blessing and for invocation.

2. The mark of the Messenger in the feet; this referred to the use of the intuition, governed by Mercury.

3. The use of the "eye." This is not in reality the third eye (which is after all only a symbolic phrase), but the ability to use developed soul power. This is that intermediate potency found between the power of the mind and the dynamic electric energy of pure will.

For the initiate, this rule simply carries the same message but on an infinitely higher scale, and (if I may so express it) obedience to this rule calls in Aquarian energy, the reasoning power of Mercury, and the illumination of Taurus, in order to carry forward hierarchical work upon a planet and in a planetary cycle which have been conditioned by Pisces for more than two thousand years.

I would have you ponder on this, for in realisation you will here have the formula for the work of the Hierarchy as it reconstructs the world after the destruction wrought since 1900 A.D. You have here also a great triangle of energies, functioning through the medium of Mercury, the reasonable, reasoning Messenger of the Gods:

The Hierarchy is, therefore, at this time, conditioned by three great constellations:

1. Aquarius—The Custodian of that "life more abundantly" of which the Christ spoke and which He can draw upon at this time in a new and dynamic manner in order to bring about the restoration needed. This energy is the "implementing force of universality." It concerns the future.

2. Taurus—The Revealer of the vision, the "eye of the Gods," the donor of illumination. It is that which concerns the present.

3. Pisces—The Inspiration of the World Saviour, and also the field of salvation. It is the field of force in which the two other forces must work. It has been produced by the past.

As these three constellations pour their energies into the great Ashram of Sanat Kumara, the Hierarchy, they are there concentrated and retained until released under "the swift design of Mercury" into the field of the human consciousness. The effect of this release is to awaken the intuition (governed as you know by Mercury), and to enlighten advanced humanity. It is through intuitive human beings that knowledge of the Plan is given to humanity and the work of restoration can be carried forward.

At this time and in a peculiar manner, the initiate-consciousness sees the Hierarchy as primarily energised by life, and by the energy of Aquarius, carrying a hitherto unknown aspect of the life energy of deity. This is of course difficult for you to comprehend and will only be understood as it truly is at the close of the Aquarian Age.

The initiate sees the New Group of World Servers brought under the illuminating power of Taurus, with the rest of humanity still under the influence of Pisces. You have, consequently, the "over-shadowing raincloud of knowable things" hovering over humanity, just as the Hierarchy overshadows the New Group and just as the soul overshadows the personality of man; you have all the needed illumination and light upon all the coming problems, waiting to precipitate itself through the New Group of World Servers under the influence of Taurus, the nurturer of all illumination, and you have humanity, at the same time, conditioned and made sensitive by Piscean energy during the past two thousand years. You have, therefore, a condition of great spiritual promise, and in this combination of energies you have present those forces which will implement the activities of the Hierarchy, condition its initiates, affect every Ashram, bring light into the present darkness, and—as can already be seen— stir into new understanding the present Piscean consciousness of mankind.

It is in the New Group of World Servers that the training of the needed disciples for the Ashrams of  the Masters takes place at this time in world history. This is a new hierarchical venture. In this group also accepted disciples learn to work in the same manner as does the Hierarchy. The Hierarchy works within the field of the world of human living; the New Group provides a similar field for the new disciple. It is towards that group also that initiates in the various Ashrams converge at times, in order to study the calibre and quality of the disciples who are engaged in world salvage, for it is through these disciples that the Hierarchy carries out its plans. Initiates do their main work upon mental levels and from behind the scenes, and because of this their potency is great; this is particularly so with those who have taken the third initiation. A certain percentage of them are, however, active out in the world of daily living.

You need ever to remember that at this time the main technique of the Hierarchy is that of conveying inspiration.  The Masters are not openly lecturing or teaching in the great cities of the world; They work entirely through Their disciples and initiates. It will, however, be possible for Them to appear increasingly among men and evoke recognition as the influence of Aquarius is more firmly established. The Masters, in the meantime, must continue to work "within the silence of the universal Ashram," as it has been called, and from there They inspire Their workers, and these latter in their time and way, inspire the New Group of World Servers.

You will note, therefore, that the effect of Aquarius upon the Hierarchy (as far as you, at your particular point in evolution can determine it) is to bring in the energy of Shamballa which is essentially the energy of life itself, implemented by the will. This necessarily has created (and will increasingly create) major adjustments within the Hierarchy itself. The principal type of energy hitherto used by the Hierarchy is—as you well know—the energy of love. Now, to that must be added the energy of the life-giving will. New methods, new approaches to the human problem and new modes of work will have to be tried; experiment with the incoming forces will necessarily be the order of the day, though they will be experiments based upon vast knowledge and implemented with wisdom and understanding. It is the reaction of modern man to the ancient forces which produces the need for care.

Mankind is oft unpredictable, owing to the factor of free will. It is this which lies behind the training given to disciples, upon which I have already given you much instruction. The new techniques and the changed approach from that of individual culture to united group progress will bring about many types of development. It is this different approach to the same basic problems which lies behind the new capacities which are emerging among disciples; it is this which enables disciples of experience to work at high speed and with a life potency that is unusual.

I would have all disciples begin to train themselves to respond to the Aquarian energy now pouring into the Hierarchy. Some of you can do so as accepted disciples, and as members of my Ashram. Take advantage, therefore, of the opportunity for re-energising that comes to all those who have established contact, via their souls, with the Hierarchy, or who are members of an Ashram, or who, as probationers, are upon the periphery of the great Ashram of Sanat Kumara, the Hierarchy. This Aquarian influence produces mainly the intensifying of the hierarchical relationship to Shamballa, and therefore affects every member of His Ashram, from the Christ down to the most newly accepted disciple.

It is through the disciples that the New Group of World Servers are brought under the stepped-down Aquarian influences; this has to be an individual matter, largely dependent upon the point of evolution. Some members of the New Group of World Servers will not respond in any way; they cannot. Others will respond as fully as their spiritual status permits. This inflow of Aquarian energy is one of the factors which will enable the Christ to complete His task as World Saviour and World Teacher; it will also enable Him to take the initiation which lies immediately ahead of Him and for which He has been preparing for close upon three thousand years—so exalted and peculiar an initiation it is. It is this influence also which has enabled the Master R. to assume the mantle of the Mahachohan and become the Lord of Civilisation—a civilisation which will be conditioned by the rhythm of the seventh ray.

Incidentally, it is this Aquarian influence which has given the adepts of the Black Lodge the power to bring universal death throughout the world. These evil beings have responded to the will energy of Shamballa and to the life-giving vitality, but have used it in keeping with their own evil intentions and with the power conferred by their standing upon the cosmic ladder of evil. Hence the war. I only mention this as a striking example of the oft misunderstood fact that the same energy or identical force will produce results within the consciousness of a Christ or within the consciousness of anti-Christ. It is the same energy, but the forms upon which it plays differ so vastly that in one case the will-to-good is intensified, and in the others the will-to-evil. Energy per se is entirely impersonal.

The group, therefore, which "serves as Aquarius indicates" is the Hierarchy; the group which is "speeded upon the upward Way" is the New Group of World Servers. This group is ruled by Taurus, and to it that divine Taurian energy brings "illumination and the attainment of the vision." This group is, figuratively speaking, the "bull, rushing forward upon a straight line with its one eye fixed upon the goal and beaming light."

But what is that goal? It is not the goal of Self-illumination, for that lies far behind; it is the goal of providing a centre of light within the world of men and of holding up the vision to the sons of men. Let this never be forgotten, and let the New Group of World Servers realise its mission and recognise the demands of humanity upon it. What are these demands? Let me enumerate them, and then let me ask you to take them in all simplicity and act upon them.

1. To receive and transmit illumination from the kingdom of souls.

2. To receive inspiration from the Hierarchy and go forth, consequently, to inspire.

3. To hold the vision of the Plan before the eyes of men, for "where there is no vision, the people perish."

4. To act as an intermediate group between the Hierarchy and humanity, receiving light and power and then using both of these, under the inspiration of love, to build the new world of tomorrow.

5. To toil in Pisces, illumined by Taurus and responsive in degree to the Aquarian impulse  from the Hierarchy.

These objectives are not only individual objectives, but the goal for the entire group. All who respond to the life-giving force of Aquarius and to the light-giving force of Taurus can and will work in the New Group of World Servers, even though they have no occult knowledge and have never heard of their co-workers under that name. Forget this not.

Recognition of the successful work of the New Group of World Servers will be accorded by the Hierarchy, and the testimony of the recognition will be the appearing of a symbol in the aura of the group—of the entire group. This will be a symbol projected by the Hierarchy, specifically by the Christ. What that symbol will be it is not for me to say. It is not yet fully earned, and only its dim and uncertain outline can be seen from the level on which the Masters work, and not at all from the level on which the group itself works. It is "the mark of a Saviour" and it will embody the mark or indication (the signature as medieval occultists used to call it) of a new type of salvation or salvage. Up till now the mark of the Saviour has been the Cross, and the quality of the salvation offered has been freedom from substance or the lure of matter and from its hold—a freedom only to be achieved at a great cost.

The future holds within its silence other modes of saving humanity. The cup of sorrow and the agony of the Cross are well-nigh finished. Joy and strength will take their place. Instead of sorrow we shall have a joy which will work out in happiness and lead eventually to bliss. We shall have a strength which will know naught but victory and will not recognise disaster. Even the Black Lodge knew of this change in the mode of salvation, and hastily founded its groups of youths, banded together by the motto "joy through strength and strength through joy." It seems to be a law for group development to receive recognition from the side of evil, prior to that recognition coming from the good. But "after weeping cometh joy, and that joy cometh in the morning." Only the dawn is with us as yet—the dawn of the Aquarian Age. The full tide of light is inevitably moving upon its way towards us.

This Rule tells us that "the group toils in Pisces." This simply means that the field wherein the New Group of World Servers works is that of mankind, conditioned and ruled for the past two thousand years by Piscean energy. This is, as you know, the energy which produces mediation and which develops sensitivity in the individual. The work accomplished by and through this energy is so successfully accomplished that it has produced a mediating group of servers; this group acts as an intermediary between the Hierarchy and Humanity, and it has also developed the sensitive response of humanity to contacts, and to such a degree of sensitivity that the response to be accorded to the activities of the New Group of World Servers is very real and cannot be negated.

It should be remembered that the Piscean energy with which the group has to work is opposed to the incoming energies from the Hierarchy and the New Group of World Servers. This is owing to the fact that the energy of this constellation is passing out concurrently with the sixth ray energy, with which it peculiarly "coincided," as it is esoterically called. Hence the present difficulties. The passing out of the influence of Pisces, the slow withdrawal of the sixth ray force, the incoming Aquarian energy, via the Hierarchy (affecting at this time mainly the Hierarchy itself and the mental and astral planes) are conditions to which we must look for the origin of all our present troubles. In this involved situation, you have a planetary demonstration of the significance of inner causes, producing outer effects.

Slowly, however, the Hierarchy is beginning to implement both the Shamballa energy and that of Aquarius; the Masters Themselves have to learn how to use new incoming energies in the service of the Plan, just as the individual has to learn, in any particular incarnation, to work with and use the available astrological forces which make their impact upon one or other of his bodies or upon his entire personality; such energies, as you well know, can be turned to good uses or to bad.  It is not possible for the Masters to turn energy to evil ends, but They necessarily have to master new techniques and the new methods of work called for by the new conditions; these can either affect the Hierarchy itself or will produce reactions in the fourth kingdom and in the other kingdoms, producing rapidly changing orientation and attitudes.

These forces and energies—from the zodiac or from one or other of the seven rays—have poured into and through our planetary Life for countless aeons. Each time that they cyclically make their appearance, the forms and substance in the three worlds upon which they impinge and through which they pass are different in the degree of evolutionary response and of sensitive reaction to impact.

The response and the reactions of the human family as a whole, or of the individual within that whole, will differ from that of the previous cycle; with these factors the Hierarchy has to contend, changing cyclically its technique and altering its modes of work in order to meet the changing need. Bear this in mind. This has never been more evident to the Masters than today. The war might be regarded as a revolt by the form side of nature against the old conditions, and against the new incoming conditioning factors on the part of the Black Lodge.

Between the two forces—one sensitive, onward moving, ready for that which is new and better, and the other reactionary, static and determined to gain a strangle hold upon the life within the form—the Hierarchy stands at the midway point:

1. Throwing all its weight on the side of that which is new, spiritual and desirable.

2. Adapting itself simultaneously to new conditions and new emerging factors.

3. Standing like a wall of steel, unshatterable and immovable between humanity and the forces of evil.

This has been an epoch of crisis, and the great moment for which the Hierarchy has been preparing ever since it was founded upon the Earth. Slowly down the ages, men have been trained and prepared for initiation; they have been taught to develop the initiate-consciousness; they have taken then their place within the ranks of the Hierarchy and have—later—passed into the higher centre, Shamballa.

Paralleling this line of unfoldment of the individual, there has also been a great though slow expansion of the human consciousness and a gradual steady progress forward into light. It has now become possible to create the New Group of World Servers—men and women sensitive to the inner and newer vision and to the incoming forces and energies. Each group, therefore, whether it is the Hierarchy, the New Group of World Servers, or mankind itself, is wrestling with its own interior problems of response, of recognition and of responsibility; each also is actuated by an outgoing movement in two directions: towards that which is higher and which indicates a better and more spiritual future, with all that that implies, and also towards that which is rooted in and related to the past, which is crystallising, reactionary, blind in its selfishness and materiality, and which is implemented to retain the old things which should pass away and to fight that which is new.

As individual aspirants, you all know that this condition exists in the conflict waged interiorly and expressed exteriorly between the soul and the personality. The same conditioning factors can be seen also working in every group, organisation, world religion, and in every nation, as well as in the planet as a whole. Millions of years ago, the Hierarchy realised that such a time of crisis and of conflict was inevitable. The easiest way to handle it would have been as lesser conflicts were dealt with in the past—by a process of final intervention. Shamballa and the Hierarchy could have unitedly ended this world crisis, but it would then have again arisen and have gone on arising until humanity itself ended it once and for all upon the physical plane.

Of this situation the determination of the United Nations to win and to enforce complete surrender upon the aggressor nations which are the agents of the Black Lodge is symbolic and also symptomatic of the progress of the human spirit. (Written in September 1944.)  This time, the Hierarchy refrains from outer action, but simply inspires and transmits the needed energy, leaving mankind to find its own way into freedom, and out of Pisces into the aura and the field of activity of Aquarius, guided by those who are responsive to the illumination which Taurus confers.

See you not the beauty of this plan and its synthesising, culminating usefulness? See you not how the present crisis only indicates the success of the previous evolutionary cycles wherein humanity mastered certain lessons? All the post-war planning, the widespread reaction to ideals (in spite of all the efforts of the evil and reactionary forces), and the seething turmoil reaching throughout all levels of the human consciousness, plus the inspiration of disaster and suffering, are blasting open hitherto sealed areas in the minds of men, letting in illumination, sweeping away the bad old conditions.  

This is symbolised for us in the destruction of ancient cities and by the intermixture of races through the processes of war; this also signifies progress and is preparatory to great expansions of consciousness. These expansions in the human understanding will, in the next one hundred and fifty years, completely alter the manner of man's thinking; they will change the techniques of religion; they will bring about comprehension and fusion.

When this work has been accomplished we shall record an era of world peace which will be symbolic of the state of the human spirit. Men will then settle down to the great task which confronts all of us in the New Age—the task of dissipating glamour and of bringing about a clearer light upon the astral plane, in the same way that better physical conditions will have been brought about upon the physical plane. All is planned and ordered; the right energies and forces will be available, for the Hierarchy works ever under the Law of Cycles and of Cyclic Compensation.  The Masters know exactly that which must be done by right timing and by what has been called "the crisis of spatial extension." They call this the interchangeableness of time and space—a meaningless phrase to you but one which is already being dimly sensed.

The two Rules which remain for us to study concern the work of the Hierarchy in the Aquarian Age. Hence they are specifically for the more advanced disciples and for initiates. We have seen in many ways that—at this time—the Hierarchy, because it is the Ashram of Sanat Kumara Himself, is coming peculiarly and in a new sense under the influence of His will nature. This means that the Members of the Hierarchy, familiar as They may be with the Plan for the immediate cycle with which They and humanity are confronted, are being brought to a new and more "appropriate" conception of the divine Purpose which lies behind the Plan and which motivates it. The will of God is becoming plainer to Them. It is taking on more definite lines.

As our planetary Logos nears the climaxing point of the initiation which He is now undergoing, His Ashram, the Hierarchy, must and does (as part of a normal development) feel the effect. From the Christ down to the newest and latest accepted disciple, each in his own place, all are becoming increasingly responsive to the "will of God." This does not take place in a blind, acquiescing manner, but with understanding and "fortitude." This receptive attitude on the part of the Hierarchy will bring about great, necessary and unexpected changes. Some of these, I have earlier hinted, may now be taking place; some will follow later. The following ideas may serve to clarify the whole concept in your minds:

1. The entire technique of training disciples for initiation and of absorbing them into the various Ashrams which constitute the great Ashram of the Lord of the World has been altered. The Masters are no longer concerned with an individual, here or there, who endeavours to go forward on the Path, who evidences capacity and who is apparently ready for what has been called "the evocation of the initiate consciousness." It is becoming obvious to the Hierarchy that with the arrival of the Aquarian Age, group preparation, group initiation and group acceptance must and will supersede the older methods. These older methods, built around the direct relationship between a Master and a disciple, reached their highest point of usefulness early in the Piscean Age.  For nearly two thousand years these methods have proved so successful that the intensity of humanity's response is such that hundreds are now ready "for absorption." This readiness and success present a difficulty and pose a problem for the Masters, necessitating a reorganisation of Their plans and a readjustment of Their techniques.

2. Not only has the individual approach to the Hierarchy been superseded by a group approach, but it is now found to be possible to make a certain measure of the training objective and exoteric. Hence the establishment of the New Group of World Servers. This is primarily a group which, while working on the outer plane of daily, physical living, yet preserves a close ashramic integration; it thus provides a field of service for accepted disciples who are seeking service-expression, and it also provides a rallying point for all determined aspirants where they can be tried out and where their motives and persistence can be tested, prior to direct acceptance. This is something new, for it shifts the responsibility of preparing aspirants for accepted discipleship onto the shoulders of the pledged disciple and away from the immediate attention of the accepting Master. He is thus freed for other fields of service.

This, in itself, is one of the major indications of the success of the evolutionary process as applied to humanity. This "shift" was initiated by the Christ Himself; he worked with men very frequently through others, reaching humanity through the medium of His twelve Apostles, regarding Paul as substituting for Judas Iscariot. The Buddha tried the same system, but the relation of His group was, in the first instance, to Him and not so much to the world of men.  Christ sent His Apostles out into the world to feed the sheep, to seek, to guide and to become "fishers of men." The relation of the disciples of the Christ was only secondarily to their Master, and primarily to a demanding world; that attitude still controls the Hierarchy, yet with no less of devotion to the Christ. What the Buddha had instituted symbolically and in embryo became factual and existent under the demands of the Piscean Age.

3. The third great change has been in the relation of the Hierarchy to Shamballa, and of this you can necessarily know and understand little. I could perhaps express the underlying significance to you in symbolic language. The energy, emanating from Shamballa, has been divided into two direct and distinctive streams. One stream, embodying the dynamic of purpose, is now pouring into the Hierarchy and into its seven major Ashrams; another stream, embodying the dynamic of determination or of enlightened enthusiastic will, is reaching humanity direct, via the New Group of World Servers. Hitherto a blended stream of Shamballa force has poured into the Hierarchy and has streamed, in its undifferentiated type and quality, into all the groups within the Hierarchy. Now the quality of determination, or of what the average person understands by the use of the word "Will," is pouring into the New Group of World Servers, whilst the energy of dynamic purpose, differentiated into seven diverging streams, is pouring into each of the "seven points of reception," the Masters' Ashrams within the ring-pass-not of the Hierarchy.  These seven types of purpose embody the seven energies which will reorganise and redefine the hierarchical undertakings, and thus inaugurate the New Age. These seven purposes might be called:

1. The unknown, unseen and unheard purpose of Sanat Kumara. It is the secret of life itself and is known only to Him alone. In its initial phase of this new expression, it works through the Manu and the Master Morya; it is that which veils the central mystery which all esoteric schools—if true to their inaugurating impulse—will eventually reveal. What that is we do not yet know, but it is hinted at in Rule XIII.

2. The purpose underlying revelation. This may be a somewhat new idea to you for you are apt to regard revelation as a goal in itself. You seldom consider it as an effect of the inner purpose of Sanat Kumara. The emphasis hitherto has been on the aspect of revelation, making it an effect of what the disciple has done with himself and by means of which he is enabled to be the recipient of revelation. Yet behind all the successive revelations of divinity down the ages is to be found one significant purpose; all of them are and will prove themselves to be aspects of the Great Revelation. It is through the processes of revelation that divinity is slowly dawning upon the human consciousness. It is a sevenfold revelation; each of the seven kingdoms in nature reveals one aspect of it, and each of these seven reaches revelation in seven or fourteen lesser revelations or phases.

Ponder on this and learn to distinguish between vision (which is as much of the divine current revelation as a disciple can grasp in time and space) and revelation which is the synthesis of the divine expressive purpose. This is related to the will-to-good which is, in its turn, a complete expression of the love nature of Deity.

3. The (as yet) unrecognised purpose which evoked the creative activity of our Planetary Logos. This brought the third aspect of the divine Trinity into play. The usual reasons brought forward by the finite mind of man to account for what is called by us "manifestation," and to explain the dualism of all existence and the relation of spirit-matter, are by no means the real explanation of the divine purpose; they are based on man's own essential dualism; they are the highest explanation of his own divine nature which he can achieve at this time. This is a point to be remembered.  

They are his response to the second Ray of Mutual Attraction, which the Ray of Love-Wisdom is sometimes called. They are not an expression of his response to the Will of God, and only indicate the limitations of his definition of divine purpose. As you will note, they really define nothing. Nor can I help you to recognise this third aspect and the eternal purpose of the Lord of the World. Just as a soul seeks incarnation in order to carry forward some fixed design and to take one of the higher initiations, so Sanat Kumara came into incarnation through the medium of this planet in order to carry forward His fixed designs (known to Him as a cosmic Soul on cosmic mental levels), and to take one of the higher initiations which mark the Path of Initiation for these great informing Lives of planetary spheres. He could take this particular initiation through the experience to be gained in a vehicle constituted, expressive and at the special state of consciousness of our entire planetary manifestation.  It required an instrument in which the cells and atoms of His body (all lives in all kingdoms), and the integrated organisms within that body (the various kingdoms of nature), were at the peculiar point in evolution at which they are all now to be found.

That is as far as I may go in giving you a hint, and you can see from this that in order to grasp more and comprehend more of His divine purpose you also will have to be in preparation for that particular initiation which for you—on your tiny level of awareness of fixed design—is the microcosmic parallel of His cosmic intention.  Which that initiation is I may not state.  The only service which these hints can render (as to the sevenfold divine purpose and the consideration of them) is to develop in you, the disciple, the power to think abstractly—a much needed capacity before you can begin to tread the Way of the Higher Evolution; for this the five initiations open to humanity (as today constituted) prepare the human spirit.

4. The mysterious purpose which has necessitated the calling into activity the Principle of Pain. Suffering and Pain are essential requirements in order to carry this purpose to completion. The capacity to suffer, which is distinctive of humanity, is the outstanding conscious reaction to environment of the fourth kingdom in nature, the human. It is related to the power to think and consciously to relate cause and effect. It is a process on the way to something undreamt of today. And when I say this, my brother, I mean just exactly that. This same ability to respond through pain is not to be found (in the sense in which the human being comprehends it) in any of the subhuman kingdoms, nor in the superhuman kingdoms, any more than it was found in the previous solar system or will be found in the next. It is related to an aspect of the creative intelligence, an aspect and characteristic peculiar to humanity.

This aspect was not found in the previous solar system, in which the other aspects of the creative intelligence functioned.  In this solar system, it has been developed and brought from latency to potency in connection with the substance of the human bodies through which the human soul is gaining experience. It holds the secret of beauty in manifestation, and its first expression can be seen in the creative perfection of certain phases of art for which man, and man alone, is responsible. No other kingdom in nature creates forms, produces colour and sounds in harmonious relation, except the human; all of this type of creative art is the result of aeons of conflict, pain and suffering. The Jews, as a product of the humanity of the previous solar system, and as constituting the incarnating residue from that solar system, have run the gamut of suffering and are in the forefront of the creative arts at this time, particularly in group production such as certain of the great motion pictures and in the field of scientific discovery.

There will be, as you can well see, a close relation between this fourth purpose of Sanat Kumara, the fourth kingdom in nature, the human, and the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict. It is the balanced relation of these three, consummated at the fourth initiation, which produces the full beauty of the creative fixed design of the individual soul, or—on a different level of initiatory process—of the fixed design of the universal soul of the Lord of the World.  The fourth ray being temporarily out of full incarnation at this time is the reason for the relative interlude in the production of human creative art of a very high order. The cycle of suffering is nearing its close, and we shall later see—when the fourth ray again swings into full objective activity—a recurrence of the arts on a turn of the spiral far more exalted than any lately seen.

The fifth great secret underlying the purpose of Sanat Kumara is related in a peculiar sense to the cyclic manifestation of all that is found in the three worlds of human evolution. It concerns that which is working slowly into manifestation through the medium of the lower concrete mind as it controls desire and brings substance and matter into conformity with the divine thought along this line. The sumtotal of the highest phases of human thinking along all lines, materially affects what appears on the physical plane in all the kingdoms of nature, what precipitates civilisations and cultures, and which expresses the best response at the moment of human sensitivity to cosmic impression.

This is all that can be said as we attempt to sum up the fixed desire and the pattern or purpose of divine activity down the ages. We know it to be profoundly inadequate as yet to express or to produce in manifested form the beauty of that design and to create in conformity with God's thought; but—age by age—the thinking capacity of man and his creative imagination have wrought out the slowly unfolding design, and will continue to do so; every great world cycle sees the emergence of greater beauty, and sees the subtle effects of man's thinking upon the subhuman kingdoms in nature steadily bringing the unknown to the surface, altering the nature of the flora and the fauna of the planet, and preparing the way for that time of wonder when the Hierarchy will again be exoterically directing the Plan upon the earth and aiding mankind to work with a fuller understanding of the divine design.

Here again is another reason for the changing plans of the Hierarchy. The Masters have to prepare Themselves for this intended and imminent emergence. They are faced with the necessity of changing Their techniques of work in order to meet adequately the demands upon Them. It is far easier for Them to work, as illumined Minds, upon the mental substance of Their disciples than it will be for Them to work down upon the physical plane, relating the minds and the brains of advanced human beings. People are apt to forget that with each forward advance of humanity, the demands upon the Hierarchy change, new needs must be met, new techniques used, new and experimental methods must be employed. As I write for disciples and initiates, I call this to their attention. Their work of mental training does not end as they attain certain spiritual initiatory goals.

This fifth purpose is therefore closely related to the whole theme of "the garment of God" and to the emergence into manifestation of His "robe of beauty" as it is created and brought into being by humanity, acting as the medium for ideas from the superhuman kingdoms, and then influencing and swinging into creative cooperation the subhuman kingdoms.

5. It is difficult for me to give any idea whatsoever of the purpose with which we are now concerned, because it is expressed in the relation existing between the significance of Desire, Will, Plan and Purpose. All these words are symbols evolved by man in his attempt to grasp logoic purpose. He recognises the impulses of desire, and in the course of the evolutionary process learns to transmute them into aspiration; he passes on to a vague groping forward in an effort to understand and acquiesce in the "will of God," as he calls it; as long, however, as human approach to that will remains negative, submissive, and acquiescent (as it does under the influence of the theological approach and in the manner inculcated by the Churches), no real light on the nature of that Will will be seen. It is only as human beings enter into relation with the Hierarchy and are gradually absorbed into the hierarchical life and begin to take the higher initiations that the true nature of the divine Will will be grasped and the purpose of Sanat Kumara be revealed by an appreciation of the plan, followed by a consequent cooperation with that Plan.

All this will be done through the transmutation of desire into aspiration, and then into fixed determination. When, however, the initiate has related these phases of consciousness in his own inner experience, and has permitted those inner realisations to affect his outer experience and daily living, then the underlying Purpose will shine forth and he will no longer be working in the dark. You see, my brother, that all that I can do in these abstruse matters is to indicate what you can do, as an individual, to fit yourself to grasp divine purpose, and thus see the divine design and patterns as they are in reality. Once you have taken the needed steps and complied with the requirements, the mystery disappears.

6. The final phase of the divine purpose is the most difficult of all to indicate, and when I say indicate, I mean exactly that, and nothing more definite and clear. Does it mean anything to you when I say that the ceremonial ritual of the daily life of Sanat Kumara, implemented by music and sound and carried on the waves of colour which break upon the shores of the three worlds of human evolution, reveal—in the clearest notes and tones and shades—the deepest secret behind His purpose? It scarcely makes sense to you and is dismissed as a piece of symbolic writing, used by me in order to convey the unconveyable. Yet I am not here writing in symbols, but am making an exact statement of fact. As beauty in any of its greater forms breaks upon the human consciousness, a dim sense is thereby conveyed of the ritual of Sanat Kumara's daily living. More I cannot say.

Here are hints, therefore, as to the divine purpose; each of the seven supplements and completes the other six. Only by attempting to grasp the whole inner synthesis will we arrive at the merest hint of the nature of that exalted consciousness which has brought our planet and all that is within and upon it into being.

35. RULE THIRTEEN

Rule XIII

Let the group get ready to reveal the hidden mystery. Let the group demonstrate the higher meaning of the lessons learnt, and these are four and yet are one. Let the group understand the Law of Synthesis, of unity and fusion; let the threefold mode of working with that which is dynamic carry the group together towards the Higher Three where the Will of God holds sway; let Transfiguration follow Transformation, and may Transmutation disappear. Let the O.M. be heard right at the center of the group, proclaiming God is All.

The key to the significance and the clue to the secret of this rule are to be found in the preparatory rule given to applicants in the earlier book, Initiation, Human and Solar.  It is included here so that you can refer to it as you study its higher corresponding rule, as given to initiates and to advanced disciples.

Rule XIII. For Applicants. Four things the disciple must learn and comprehend before he can be shewn the inmost mystery: first, the laws of that which radiates; the five meanings of magnetisation make the second; the third is transmutation or the secret lost of alchemy; and lastly, the first letter of the Word which has been imparted, or the hidden name egoic.

In this earlier rule, the disciple is told that before he can advance to the mysteries which will be revealed to him sequentially as he advances along the Path of Initiation, there are four things which he must "learn and comprehend." These are:

1. The laws of that which radiates. 1 would call your attention to the fact that this does not refer to the Laws of Radiation. That which radiates comes under its own laws which are different to those which produced radiation. Students need to read with increasing care as they advance upon the occult way which leads to the Way of the Higher Evolution.

2. He must study the five meanings of magnetisation. This refers to the five modes in which the Law of Magnetisation works; this is another name for the Law of Attraction.

3. He must comprehend what transmutation is and in which consists the secret art (now lost along with the Lost Word) of Alchemy. Esoterically speaking, transmutation is the mode whereby force is transmuted or changed into energy. This means (where a disciple is concerned) the transmutation or changing or stepping up of personality force into egoic energy.

4. He must know the "hidden name egoic" or the first letter of the imparted Word. Two things should be noted here. The "Word" here does not refer to the Sacred Word but to the name of the planetary Logos, the hidden name of Sanat Kumara Who is the soul of the world in all its phases, the manifesting Ego of the Logos on the cosmic mental plane. Only the first letter of that "ineffable name" is permitted expression to initiates until the fourth initiation. You will see, therefore, how vast a field this instruction on Rule XIII covers.

The higher correspondences of these four requirements are expressed in the following terms:

1. Let the group understand the Law of Synthesis. (This is the law which governs the thinking of those great Lives Who form the Council of Sanat Kumara in Shamballa.)

2. Let the threefold mode of working with that which is dynamic carry the group together towards the Higher Three where the Will of God holds sway.

3. Let Transfiguration follow Transformation and may Transmutation disappear.

4. Let the O.M. be heard right at the centre of the group, proclaiming God is all.

You can gather from the above what a tremendous field of esoteric truth is here covered and how abstruse to the average occult student is the theme. Again I would remind you that the real significance will only be perceived by the trained initiate and that what I say here must necessarily be veiled and even meaningless to the non-initiate, even whilst radiantly clear to those who truly know. Again, I would remind you that I write this particular section of A Treatise on the Seven Rays entirely for initiates, and that aspirants who have not taken initiation cannot understand or duly appreciate the inner meaning of these fourteen rules.

In this fact lies no reason for discouragement, nor is there any suggestion that those with initiate consciousness should endeavour to explain, even if—through compassion or from the desire to stimulate approach to the Mysteries—they desired to do so. No true initiate would be so tempted, for he would realise that it would not only be impossible but also that there is a vital necessity for the disciple to work out significances and meanings through the medium of his own life experiment and to arrive at understanding through direct experience. Then no questioning can ever arise and sure knowledge takes its place. There are no questions of any kind in the consciousness of those who form the Hierarchy. The lower analytical concrete mind which questions and separates this from that has been completely controlled and superseded; response to indicated group activity takes place.  Students need to realise more concretely that group consciousness, universal awareness, and therefore synthetic effort, synthetic understanding and synthetic activity are possible to a Master or an initiate of the higher degrees. That involves the keynote of this solar system, particularly within this planet, the Earth; it will be succeeded in the next solar system by a type of life activity which is as yet only known in Shamballa.

There are certain phases of teaching and knowledge which I have given to the world which are relatively new—new to the modern esotericist and occult student though not new to disciples and initiates. It might be useful here if I mentioned one or two of these new aspects of the fundamental Truth which have been given by me to the public. If these new phases of the teaching have been later given to the public by other occult groups, it will have been because the information was gained by those who have read the books put out by A.A.B. for me or who are directly and consciously in touch with my Ashram.

What are some of these newer truths for which I am responsible as transmitting agent to the world of occult students? Let me briefly state them in the order of their relative importance:

1. The Teaching on Shamballa. Little has ever been given on this subject. Only the name was known. This teaching includes:

1. Information as to the nature of the will aspect.
2. Indications as to the underlying purposes of Sanat Kumara.
3. Directions as to the building of the antahkarana, which is the first step towards achieving monadic consciousness, and thus the first step towards the Way of the Higher Evolution.

2. The Teaching on the New Discipleship. This has been revolutionary where the older schools of occultism are concerned. The teaching includes:

1. A presentation of the new attitude of the Masters to Their disciples, due to the rapid unfoldment of the mind principle and the growth of the principle of "free will." This changed technique negates the old attitudes, such as that portrayed in the Theosophical literature, and it was a recognition of the difficulties of correcting the wrong impression given which prompted H.P.B. in one of her communications to the Esoteric Section of her day, to regret ever having mentioned Their names. That earlier presentation was useful but has now served its purpose. Unless the schools based on the old methods change their techniques and their approach to truth, they will disappear.

Information as to the constitution of the Hierarchy and of the various Ashrams of which it is composed. I have presented the Hierarchy as the Ashram of Sanat Kumara in its sevenfold form, thus linking will and love.

2. A presentation of the newer type of meditations, with its emphasis upon visualisation and the use of the creative imagination; I have presented a system of meditation which has eliminated the attention paid hitherto to personal problems and the intense earlier focus on the relation of the disciple and the Master. The keynote of group fusion and of service underlies the newer form of meditation, and not this powerful emphasis upon the personal relation of the disciple to the Master and the achievement of the individual aspirant. This was degenerating into a form of spiritual selfishness and separateness.

3. The Teaching on the Seven Rays. The fact of the seven rays was well known to the heads of the Theosophical Society, was mentioned very abstractly and vaguely in The Secret Doctrine, and formed in an elementary form some of the teaching given in the Esoteric Section; the names of the rays were given, and some information as to their qualities, and the Masters on the rays, was imparted but not much else. I have given out much information upon the subject and have endeavoured to show the importance of this teaching from the psychological angle, because the new psychology is in the making. If esoteric teaching is eventually to be public in its presentation, it will be given out along the lines of psychology because esoteric teaching in its fullest and deepest sense concerns the consciousness aspect of man and God.

4. The Teaching on the new Astrology. This teaching too has gone out to a few hundred students before its publication in book form. This new astrology has been hitherto ignored by those astrologers who have read it and (with the exception of four astrologers who have deeply appreciated it but who wish I would be more explicit) see little in it. I have given enough, could the open-minded astrologer but realise, to establish the coming astrology on a firm basis; the accuracy of what I have given will in the course of time he ascertained when astrologers who are dealing with the horoscopes of advanced people and disciples will use the esoteric planets as given by me, and not the orthodox planets as usually used. The accuracy of their deductions will necessarily depend upon their own point of development and also upon their ability to recognise an advanced person, a disciple or an initiate when they meet him and undertake to cast his horoscope.  If they are themselves advanced disciples, they may have a tendency to set too rigid a standard for those seeking astrological deduction, and thus fail to recognise a disciple; if they are not advanced, they may regard people as advanced who are far from being even true aspirants. In either case then the horoscope may prove inaccurate. It is of no use to use the esoteric planets in relation to the average man.

5. Information about the New Group of World Servers and their work. This information includes:

1. The recognition of this group as intermediate between the Hierarchy and Humanity.

2. The nature of their work as it influences the human soul and as it seeks through the instrumentality of the men and women of goodwill to determine the period in which we live.

3. The Triangle work which embodies two phases of their work, i.e., the forming of the network of light as the channel of communication between the Hierarchy and Humanity, and the forming simultaneously of the network of goodwill, which is the objective expression of the subjective influence of light. Ponder on this statement.

6. The attempt to form an exoteric branch of the inner Ashrams. This is evidenced in the work I have done with a special group of aspirants and accepted disciples whose instructions, emanating from my Ashram, have been embodied in the book Discipleship in the New Age.

7. Teaching upon the new world religion, with its emphasis upon the three major Full Moon periods (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, falling usually in April, May and June respectively) and the nine (occasionally ten) minor Full Moons each year. This leads to a consequent relation being established between the work of the Christ and of the Buddha in the minds of spiritually inclined people everywhere, with the result of a great broadening of the human aspiration. This work is as yet embryonic, but it should receive increasing attention. Eventually it will demonstrate as the main linking unit between the East and the West, particularly if Shri Krishna is shown to be an earlier incarnation of the Lord of Love, the Christ. Thereby three major world religions—the Christian, the Hindu and the Buddhist—will be intimately related, whilst the Mahommedan faith will be found to be linked to the Christian faith because it embodies the work of the Master Jesus as He overshadowed one of His senior disciples, a very advanced initiate, Mahomet.

A close study of all the above will indicate to you the lines along which I would like to see the work expand in future years. I would ask for a careful study of these words, for I regard this as an important instruction and one which could be regarded as the skeleton outline of the work I wish to see done. It will involve an intensification of the work of the advanced section in the Arcane School, a greater emphasis upon the Full Moon meetings, a careful organisation of the Triangle work and the Goodwill work as an added effort to aid the work of the New Group of World Servers, plus an attempt to recognise the members of the New Group whenever and wherever contacted. This will not be at all an easy task, my brothers, if you look only for those who think and work your way, or who recognise the Hierarchy as you recognise it, or if you exclude those who labour in relation to religious and other fields in a manner different to yours. Forget not, as an instance of this, that the great Labour Movement in the world was initiated by one of the Masters and is implemented from His Ashram at this time.

We come now to a detailed analysis of Rule XIII. In the foregoing pages I gave you certain broad principles and outlined a new aspect of the work which I had undertaken to do for humanity—under instruction from the Hierarchy. The teaching I gave there is very abstruse; little of it can as yet be of real service to the majority of aspirants but a wide and general idea can take form and provide the immovable background for later teaching. I would have you remember that the teaching which I have given out has been intermediate in nature, just as that given by H.P.B., under my instruction, was preparatory. The teaching planned by the Hierarchy to precede and condition the New Age, the Aquarian Age, falls into three categories:

1. Preparatory, given 1875-1890 - written down by H.P.B.
2. Intermediate, given 1919-1949 - written down by A.A.B.
3. Revelatory, emerging after 1975 - to be given on a worldwide scale via the radio.

In the next century and early in the century an initiate will appear and will carry on this teaching. It will be under the same "impression," for my task is not yet completed and this series of bridging treatises between the material knowledge of man and the science of the initiates has still another phase to run. The remainder of this century, as I told you elsewhere (Destiny of the Nations), must be dedicated to rebuilding the shrine of man's living, to reconstructing the form of humanity's life, to reconstituting the new civilisation upon the foundations of the old, and to the reorganising of the structures of world thought, world politics, plus the redistribution of the world's resources in conformity to divine purpose. Then and only then will it be possible to carry the revelation further.

It is with the above indicated sequence in mind that I come to the analysis of the sentences in Rule XIII, beginning with the first:

1. Let the group get ready to reveal the hidden mystery.

The readiness here referred to has nothing to do with personal preparedness or with the group unity which I have so often emphasised. It does not refer to individual purity or consecration or to mental development or to group relationships, as they work out in harmony and understanding. I am considering something far different to all these factors which are regarded as automatic and necessarily present. I refer to that which is the result of all of them, just as they in their turn are the result of soul contact. I refer to effects wrought out in the group owing to the present and factual nature of the monadic control which is taking place increasingly.

What does this mean? It signifies the fact that the members of the group are each and all of them upon the Path of Initiation at some one or other of its stages and that the group, as a group, is in process of taking initiation, for initiation is a process at this stage, and not an event. It signifies that the group antahkarana is built and is being consciously used, and that therefore divine purpose is being sensed (even if only faintly so) and that the Plan is being obeyed and carried out. It signifies also that the three strands of the "rainbow bridge" are now so strong and so firmly anchored that they not only connect the two aspects of the mental equipment (higher and lower mind), but that they have been carried also through the three levels of the triadal consciousness; it means also that these three strands are firmly anchored in what I have symbolically called the Council Chamber at Shamballa.

This Council Chamber is not a location or a place, but a state of consciousness within the all-enveloping Life. These three points of anchorage within the sphere of the planetary Consciousness, or (if you like it better, though remembering ever that we are speaking and thinking in terms of symbols) in the planetary brain, find their feeble correspondence in the three points of sensitivity in the head of a disciple or initiate, that is, in the region of the pineal gland, the pituitary body and the carotid gland.

These, as you know, are to be found within the areas to which we give the names the head centre, the ajna centre and the alta major centre. These correspondences are very real, even though functioning upon a minute scale; the initiate achieves his desired "perfecting" when the triad within his head is related, and love, will and intelligence are functioning in synthesis. Here we find a relation to the spiritual Triad and the three points in the Council Chamber which are presided over by the three Buddhas of Activity, and within Whose exalted consciousness the three strands of the antahkarana meet and become active in a way incomprehensible to you. Necessarily, this great antahkarana is not constructed correctly except by those whose individual antahkaranas are likewise in process of construction.

See you, therefore, the necessity of eventually organising a group in the world which will be so constituted and so carefully chosen and interiorly related that all its members are initiates, all have created their own "rainbow bridges" with understanding and accuracy, and all can now work in such complete unity that the group antahkarana becomes a channel of unimpeded communication direct from Shamballa to the group because every member of the group is a member of the Hierarchy.

In this manner the three planetary centres arrive at the needed relationship, and another great triangle reaches true functioning activity. When this takes place, a revelation undreamt of will be manifested upon the Earth; a new divine quality, of which no knowledge at present exists, will make its presence felt, and the work of the Buddha and of the Christ, and the work of the coming Avatar, will be superseded by One for Whom both Shamballa and the Hierarchy have unitedly waited and of Whom the doctrine of the Messiah and the doctrine of Avatars have been and are today only the dim distant symbols. They preserve this concept of the Great Revelation in the consciousness of men, in the expectancy which the Hierarchy evidences, and through the "preparatory work" now being undertaken at Shamballa.

The group, therefore, to whom I address this instruction is not the group or groups who will first receive these papers. The instruction is intended for a group which will come later and which will prepare the way, and of which some of the more advanced aspirants can form part if they "walk humbly with their God." This, my brother, is one of the most advanced injunctions in any of the world Scriptures and is found in The Bible. It has no reference to humility as usually interpreted and understood. It signifies the ability to view all life with a sense of divine proportion and from the angle of spiritual mathematics, and (paradoxical as this may sound) with no sense of dualism. The usual meaning is not correct.  It involves acceptance and comprehension of purpose, and this in such a manner that the consecrated personality—under control of the Monad, via the antahkarana, and in cooperation with the one known God—walks the ways of Earth as a channel for the three divine qualities (love, will and intelligence), but also as a channel for that which these three qualities will enable him later to sense, know and reveal.

These are solemn and important statements. They have within them the element of prophecy, but it is prophecy which has no relation to the salvation of humanity in any sense at all. It is related to an active Appearance which will, under the Law of Synthesis, indicate That which the three great planetary centres of divine life are unitedly intended to reveal. Something lies behind the three divine aspects of so great an importance, beauty and revelatory strength that all the happenings of all time, up to the present emerging Aquarian Age, have been only the initial and the initiatory preparation.

In this rule we find posed two preparatory steps and four major undertakings or demonstrations of fitness, if you like so to call them, for the work to be done. These latter correspond to the "four things the disciple must learn and comprehend before he can be shewn the inmost mystery," as it is said in the Rule for Applicants. There is a definite relation between the two sets of rules and it is one which we shall note as we proceed. The two preparatory injunctions simply summarise the effects in the life of the disciple who has applied and learned the significance of the Rules for Applicants, but they are this time demonstrated by a group of disciples who have passed through certain initiations and are functioning as a unified group. The simplicity of the subject is great and yet it is ever deemed to be complex. The applicant has become soul conscious, and is therefore an initiate; remember always that the soul on its own plane is an initiate of all degrees.

Initiation is, in the last analysis, the realisation, the recognition in the brain consciousness of various spheres and states of divine awareness, with a consequent life demonstration of this fact, this eternal fact. Because of this, the man thinks only in group terms and does this automatically and without any consciousness that he is so doing; he expresses this group integrity simply as a part of his nature, just as in the personality stage and during the elapsing aeons since individualisation, he has thought only and naturally in terms of the separated self.

As long as a person makes a conscious effort to be group-conscious and has to train and discipline himself to work in group formation and as part of a group, he is still centred in the personality. This personality expression may be of an exceedingly high order and the aspirant or disciple may be the highest kind of selfless person, but true group living is as yet not present.

The transition stage is most difficult and oft bewildering; it presents its own problems, based upon a newly presented phase of dualistic consciousness. The disciple reacts to group conditions and group problems; he tunes in with facility on the consciousness of those in the group; he is aware of group reactions and aspirations, but he is still himself; he is still passing through a stage of inner adjustment to a state of being and of awareness for which all past relationships have provided no guiding precedent. The group and the group personnel which are capable of adjustment (and which can carry out and conform to Rule XIII for disciples and initiates) have become so merged with the soul (within themselves and within all other selves) that the situation is reversed. It would now be an effort for such people to think and react as personalities. I word the problem thus, so as to clarify it for you, if possible.

When this stage of centralisation is achieved, then the group can begin to reveal the hidden mystery. All that I can tell you about that mystery is that it concerns the purpose and the reason for which our planetary Logos took incarnation and became the informing Life of our planet, the Earth; it concerns the necessity, inherent in His Own nature, to reach a point upon the cosmic ladder of evolution which would make Him—as a result—the informing Life of a sacred planet. Forget not that our planet is not yet a sacred planet, though it is close to that great transformation. The cosmic secret of this transforming process is one that Sanat Kumara is now learning, and when That which overshadows Him during this incarnation has wrought the needed changes through a process of transformation and transmutation, then a great Transfiguration will take place and He will take His place among those empowered to work through a sacred planet.

This process is that which implements the evolutionary process. Evolution is an effect of this hidden work, emanating from cosmic levels; only when evolution has run its course through all the multiplicity of forms, of cycles, chains and spheres, of rounds and races and of world periods, will we know something of the true nature of the hidden mystery. In the Council Chamber of Shamballa it is being dimly sensed. The Buddha and the Christ are expressing the qualities which—when more universally demonstrated—will indicate its nature, if I might so express it. They are together mobilising the equipment upon our planet which will make the revelation of the mystery inevitable. This should give you a hint and much food for thought. More I cannot say, and even this you will only vaguely understand. Let us pass now to the second of the preparatory steps.

2. Let the group demonstrate the higher meaning of the lessons learnt, and these are four and yet are one.

Aspirants learn, as they proceed upon the Path of Probation, to see the meaning of their physical plane activities in terms of the world of desire, of the astral plane. What they do originates upon that plane and gives their deeds meaning. This is the ABC of elementary occultism and of true psychology. Later, they enter a higher world of meaning and find that "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Thus the lesson of kama-manasic impulse is slowly mastered and (in the process of learning) desire, prompted by the mind and implemented by the personality, loses its hold upon the aspirant. Later again, and as the soul begins to dominate, he learns the meaning of love and slowly, and oft through the mastering of pain, he absorbs the significance or meaning of group activity, group relation, and group initiation. He stands, therefore, at this stage ready (as this Rule expresses it) to learn the higher meaning of four lessons, processes or stages which are in themselves, nevertheless, one lesson. The four lessons which he has learnt up to this point have prepared him for the four lessons which—as an initiate and as one whose consciousness is focussed in the Spiritual Triad—he must now master. To summarise, they constitute the four phases of an activity which will bring him to a point of tension which will indicate the next possible initiatory stage.

Four words could be used to express these processes: Radiation. Magnetisation. Transmutation. Impartation.  Let me very briefly indicate some of the elementary significances of these words to the initiate-consciousness:

1. Radiation. The initiate is a radiating centre of light and love. This radiation has two effects:

1.  It has made him an essential and vital factor for unity in the Master's Ashram.

2.  It has enabled him to gather around him his own group and thus begin to form his own ashram. The personnel of the world group which will reveal the hidden mystery will all of them be "radiant centres" to a greater or lesser degree. They will thus be invocative and evocative.  This thought holds the clue to the Law of Synthesis, of unity and of fusion as given in Rule XIII for initiates.

2. Magnetisation. The initiate who is radiating light and love is himself being magnetised by the highest of the present known divine aspects—Life. This expresses itself through will and purpose and is therefore dynamic in character. The initiate is charged constantly with life, and consequently can work with the impelling Law of Evolution which (as worded in the rule we are considering) will "carry the group together towards the Higher Three." See you not how the different phases of the teaching lead from one to another and provide a great ladder of approach to reality? I would call to your attention that in the Fourteen Rules for Applicants and in the Fourteen Rules for Disciples and Initiates you have the two great foundational courses of the coming Schools of the Mysteries, for which I have prepared the world in Letters on Occult Meditation.

3. Transmutation. This indicates here an achievement and not a process; the work of transmuting the lower nature into the higher and desire into love, of transforming personality purpose into group livingness and being, has led to that complete transfiguration which makes the entire process of transmutation no longer needed. But—and this is the point to be emphasised—because of this achievement, the art of transmutation is now the instrument which the initiate can use and transmute that which is not himself, and thus consciously and with clear purpose further the ends of evolution. Transmutation "disappears" out of his own life, but the forces which have been transmuted into spiritual energy begin now to have a dynamic transmutative effect in the world of forms wherein he now chooses to work and serve, according to his ray and ashramic intent.

4. Impartation. Reference to this is made in the Book of Revelation, found in The New Testament. There we are told that the initiate is given a white stone, and in the stone "a new name" is found written; this is the "hidden name egoic." I am at a loss at this point as to how to express the higher significance of this. This impartation marks a climaxing point in the attainment of the point of tension where the Sound can be heard and not the Word alone. Never forget that the O.M. is simply a symbolically sounded word which is intended to bring into the minds of those upon the Path those two great points of tension wherein:

1. The "hidden name egoic" is conferred upon the disciple. This, as far as he is concerned, is the Word of his soul ray.

2. The Sound heard of which the O.M. is a symbol. This is the first letter of the sevenfold Name of the planetary Logos. More upon this subject may not be given, nor am I in a position to give it.

These two preparatory injunctions will give you some idea of how abstruse is the teaching conveyed in the rules for initiates. The understanding and the expressing of the four rules for applicants, as demonstrated by the disciple now functioning in a group, can all be summed up in the word: Being. Having said that, what does it mean to you? Being, per se, can only be grasped by those who have "come alive" monadically, who function in the three worlds of the Spiritual Triad with even greater positivity than the highly advanced personality functions in the three worlds of human evolution; and who have grasped somewhat the purpose for which Sanat Kumara has come into being and through directed livingness is working out His intention.

We can now take up the four major injunctions given to the initiated disciple as he prepares to work under the Laws of the Spirit, as a conscious soul, and (for purposes of service) through a personality. There are many initiates working without a body of contact which a personality provides, but we shall not consider them in our studies. We shall only deal with those disciples who can work as a group on the physical plane, fulfilling ashramic intent on the one hand and preparing themselves to tread the Way of the Higher evolution upon the other. The first major injunction in this Rule XIII reads as follows:

3. Let the group understand the Law of Synthesis, of unity and fusion.

The Law of Synthesis, as you know, is the law of spiritual existence, and one of the three major laws of our solar system, as well as of our planet. It is a basic cosmic law, applied from sources of which we know nothing, as are the Laws of Attraction and of Economy. I dealt with these somewhat at length in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, and of these two other laws I have given much and hinted more. Of the Law of Synthesis, I can tell you but little. It is the law governing the activities of the Spiritual Triad, and the conditioning law of monadic living. It works neither through the use of the energy of love nor through the application of the principle of economy. The fulfillment of these laws is necessary and preparatory to an understanding of the Law of Synthesis, and under the Law of Synthesis the worlds of illusion and glamour are mastered and the control of maya is negated; under the Law of Attraction the nature of love is revealed, first of all through desire for form life, and then through attraction to the soul and a consequent resolution of the dualities of soul and personality. This brings about a unity which— in due time—serves to reveal a greater potential dualism—that of soul and spirit; this fundamental duality must also be resolved, leaving the essential, universal planetary duality, Spirit-matter, present in time and space.

The Law of Synthesis has reference to this relationship and to the factual nature of the tremendous assertion of H. P. Blavatsky that "Matter is spirit at its lowest point of manifestation and spirit is matter at its highest." It is of this synthesis that the group must learn; it is this relation which they must begin to comprehend, and the distinction (for there is a distinction) between synthesis, unity and fusion must in due time be mastered.

To you, it may seem that these three words connote the same thing, but that is not so; fusion is ever related to the conscious merging of soul and substance until a point of equilibrium is achieved; at this point, unity becomes possible and the point of balance—through the attainment of a point of tension— is disturbed. This takes place in three definitely defined stages when the fusion of personality and soul is brought about through the self-initiated effort of the disciple: first of all upon the Probationary Path, then upon the Path of Discipleship, and finally at the third initiation, upon the Path of Initiation. It is essential that you ever remember that this third initiation, the Transfiguration, is the first major initiation from the standpoint of the Hierarchy, though the third from the limited vision of the aspirant. The initiate then goes on to learn the significance of unity in its true sense; this is only possible when monadic influence can be consciously registered and when the antahkarana is in process of conscious construction. I emphasise the word "conscious" here; much of the work of fusion and of attainment proceeds unconsciously under the fundamental Law of Evolution, which is a Shamballic law, embodying as it does the working out of the inscrutable will of Deity. The work now being done on the three stages of the Path has to be intentional and, therefore, consciously undertaken and intelligently planned; it must be backed, first of all by determination, then by the spiritual will, and finally as an implemented aspect of purpose.

Fusion might therefore be regarded as the individual process of spiritual integration, relating—in full waking consciousness—the three divine aspects in man. Unity might be regarded as the conscious adaptation of the initiated disciple to the greater whole, as his absorption into the group through his obedience to the laws of the soul, and as governing his attitude to that in which he lives and moves and has his being.

This goes on until he sees no distinction, registers no differences and is aware of no separative reaction, and all this because the instinct to separation no longer exists in him. It refers to his oneness in the world of energies in which he moves, making him an unimpeded channel for energy and, therefore, an integral and smoothly working part of his total environment and, above all, of the group to which, automatically and under the laws which govern his soul, he has been attracted. He has learnt all that he can learn through the processes of differentiation to which he has been subjected for aeons.

The principle of intelligence controls him and the principle of love motivates him, and he has consequently attained unity. But, my brothers, it is the unity of his ray, of his Ashram and of the Plan; it is the unity of the Hierarchy which exists for purposes of service and active work in its seven major groups and its three main departments or divisions. It is indeed attainment and liberation. But more must still be learnt if the Way of the Higher Evolution is to be trodden and a choice between the seven cosmic Paths made—a choice which curiously enough is not dependent upon ray, for all rays are to be found on all these paths.

This can only be done through synthesis. This Law of Synthesis "works through the Seven which yet are One; which points to the seven ways and yet those upon the seven ways are one; which initiates the universal into the many but preserves its integrity; which originates the plan but preserves intact the purpose; which sees the multiplicity needed under the Law of Sacrifice but subordinates that law unto the Law of Synthesis; which breathes forth the many Breaths and yet is Life Itself."

In this attempt to paraphrase an ancient definition of the Law of Synthesis, I have said all that I can upon the theme. Only as disciples build the antahkarana and function as the Spiritual Triad within the monadic Life will inspiration come, just as they learnt to make contact with the soul and to function as the threefold personality within the soul, and then revelation ensued. Naught is gained by further elucidation. Proceed with the work of building the antahkarana and light will shine upon your way and revelation will attend your steps.

The second major injunction (though the fourth phrase in our rule) is:

4. Let the threefold mode of working with that which is dynamic carry the group together towards the Higher Three.

This injunction holds in it information which is somewhat new to the modern initiate, functioning in a physical body; it is difficult for him to grasp even a modicum of its significance. To convey any faintest hint of its meaning is incomparably difficult for me where disciples such as you are concerned. All I can do is to fall back upon the Law of Analogy, by means of which the microcosm can arrive at a glimmer of understanding of the more obvious aspects of the Macrocosm.

First, let me make reference to the words "the Higher Three"; let me see if I cannot somewhat clarify the entire complex idea. The words "Higher Three" refer to the three Buddhas of Activity Who still remain actively cooperating with the Lord of the World. They are, as you have been told, close to Sanat Kumara and came with Him when He decided to take incarnation through the medium of our planet, Earth. It is difficult to understand Their mysterious and peculiar functions. They do not belong to this solar system at all; They have passed through the human stage in such far distant and remote world cycles that the experience is no longer a part of Their consciousness; They act as advisors to Sanat Kumara where His initial purpose is concerned, and that is why the words "the will of God holds sway" occur in this rule. It is Their supreme task to see that, in the Council Chamber of Shamballa, that purpose is ever held steadily within the "area of preparation" of that Council. They function, in a peculiar sense, as linking intermediaries between the Logos of our solar system and the informing Life of the constellation Libra; They relate these two great centres of energy to our planetary Logos.

In the last solar system They were the planetary Logoi of three planets in which the mind principle reached its highest stage of development; They embody in Themselves in a most peculiar manner the wisdom aspect of the second ray, as it expresses itself primarily through what has been called in the Bhagavad Gita "skill in action." Hence Their name, the Buddhas of Activity.

Sanat Kumara has now moved one step ahead of Them upon the great cosmic ladder of evolution, for an aspect of the Law of Sacrifice has conditioned Them. However, within the planetary consciousness and among Those Who work out the divine purposes, there are none Who approach the Eternal Youth and these three Buddhas in point of Evolution. They work out Their plans—these four Great Lives— through the medium of the Lords of the Seven Rays. Under the Law of Analogy, They are to Sanat Kumara what the three mind aspects upon the mental plane are to the disciple and the initiate.

They represent in action:

1. The higher or abstract mind

2. That energy which we call the soul and which the disciple calls "the Son of Mind"

3. The concrete or lower mind of the planetary Logos

All this should be considered from cosmic levels and with cosmic implications. It was Their activity which (after evolution had run a long course) brought about the act of individualisation and thus brought the human kingdom into existence. In a mysterious sense, therefore, it might be said that the three Buddhas of Activity are responsible for:

1. The Act of Individualisation. The work of the particular Buddha responsible at the time for this major activity, has been temporarily quiescent since Lemurian days. He works, when active, through the seventh ray and draws the needed energy from two constellations: Cancer and Gemini.

2. The Act of Initiation. I would call your attention to the word act; I am not here referring to process. His work only begins at the third initiation when the planetary Logos is the Initiator. At that initiation, the will aspect begins to function. The Buddha behind the initiatory process is extremely active at this time; He works through the Christ and the Lord of the second ray, drawing the needed energy from the constellations Capricorn and Aquarius.

3. The Act of Identification. This involves what has been called a "moment of opening-up," during which the initiate sees that which lies within the cosmic intent and begins to function not only as a planetary unit but as a cosmic focal point. The Buddha of Activity, responsible for this type of planetary activity, works with the Lord of the first ray and functions as an outpost of the consciousness of the informing life of Aries and of Leo. His work is only now beginning to assume importance.

I realise that this information has little meaning to you and lies beyond your understanding, but so was much that I gave you in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. Its sole value for you lies in the revelation of the linking up and the interplay between all parts of our solar system, our universe and the zodiac. Through these three great Buddhas there is a basic relation, established aeons ago and steadfastly held, between our planet, three of the seven sacred planets, and six of the major constellations—the three and the six which most uniquely concern the fourth kingdom in nature. Other planets and other constellations are also related to the human family, but their relation is more aggressively (if I might use that word) related to the three subhuman kingdoms; with these we shall not here deal. Their relation to the human kingdom has been covered by me in the astrological section of this Treatise: A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. III (Esoteric Astrology).

You will note that I have here indicated the existence of five triangles:

1. That existing in the interplay of the energies of the three Buddhas of Activity Who create a triangle, closely related to the planet Saturn.

2. The triangle of the three rays through whom the three Buddhas work.

3. The three planets which are connected with the three Lords of the three rays and by means of which They express Their impelling energy.

4-5. Two interlaced triangles, created by the six constellations from which the three Buddhas of  Activity draw Their needed energy and to which They are uniquely related through Their individual karma. These two interlaced triangles are the cause of the six-pointed star, so familiar among the many occult symbols.

From the Law of Analogy, another exceedingly important triangle is found in the human body and (esoterically considered) is related to the subject under consideration:

1. The ajna centre, embodying the directing energy of that body of activity which we call the personality.

2. The throat centre, which is peculiarly active today in all human beings; this testifies to the success of the creative work of the Buddhas of Activity. This, in its turn, has a small symbolic triangle of its own, to which I would call attention: the thyroid gland and the para-thyroids.

3. The centre at the base of the spine. This is galvanised into activity at a certain stage of the evolutionary process, by energy emanating from the Buddhas of Activity Who are the least active at this particular time. It is an energy pouring towards the fourth kingdom but not directed towards any individual. These great Lives work through major groups. Their potency is such that it would otherwise prove destructive.

The purpose of Deity is necessarily embodied in a mental proposition; it is through this mental proposition that the three Buddhas of Activity implement Their work. I can put it no clearer. There will come a time in the experience of all initiates when—each for himself—a formulation of this mental proposition will be absolutely necessary. By means of this, each initiate will embody his individual understanding of the divine purpose as the Plan has been revealed to him.

This he can do only through the means of group experience, in cooperation with his group and when the group—as a whole—has reached a similar point of realisation has together touched the fringes of this highest of all revelations for humanity. When, for the first time, they succeed in doing this, they will come—as a group—under the direct emanation of the Higher Three and under an aspect of the Council Chamber at Shamballa which has been hitherto unknown and unrealised. This will connote a high stage of initiation of the group and is, in effect, connected with inter-hierarchical activity. It is a working out into the consciousness of the group members of an event which has taken place within the Ashram of Sanat Kumara, the Hierarchy itself; this takes place through the stimulation of all the Ashrams at a certain Full Moon, and concerns the relation of the Ashrams as a whole to Shamballa, and not to Humanity.

Can you grasp something of what I am endeavouring somewhat unsuccessfully to convey? There is an ashramic activity of which disciples know nothing in their brain consciousness until such time as the third initiation has been taken and the results of it are then dimly but increasingly sensed.  It is related to the interplay between Shamballa and the Hierarchy, but not between the Hierarchy and Humanity. It concerns the purpose and the plan as the latter is the instrument of the former. The event of realisation takes place via the triad formed by a Master and His two senior disciples, or it is formed by three Masters all upon the same ray, as for instance, the Master K.H. and his Ashram, myself and my Ashram and another affiliated Ashram.

It is for this reason that in all exoteric groups connected with an Ashram, there is always a group leader and two others who are the reflection or the correspondence to the higher triad. This is part of the externalisation of the Hierarchy which is proceeding rapidly at this time.

The importance of understanding the function of triangles is a prime necessity. A hint lies here for students in the political realm, where every country, under differing names, has its chosen ruler, and its ministers responsible for home affairs (or interior relations), and its foreign secretary, responsible for exoteric relationships.

One further point anent the Buddhas of Activity might here be of interest. Each of Them has a special relation to the three races which have been or are strictly human: these are the third, the fourth and the fifth rootraces which we call the Lemurian, the Atlantean and the present Aryan race (I do not use the word "Aryan" in the manner of the German race). In some peculiar manner, They represent in Shamballa the soul of each of these three races. One thing complicates this question for you, but it is in reality quite simple. The same souls re-incarnate in each race, and each soul therefore comes in turn under the influence of each of the three Buddhas, each of Whom is of a quality different to that of his two Associates. They represent—in Their lowest aspect—the three aspects of the mind, as I earlier said. There is:

1. The instinctual nature as it develops into the mind nature and makes a transition into an automatic, subconscious character and—at the same time—assumes some of its paralleling higher qualities.

2. The lower concrete mind in its more developed stage, as it gradually assumes control and supersedes instinct in the consciousness of man. The Buddhas of Activity preside over what might be called (using a technical, occult term) the ahamkara principle—the mind as it serves the selfish interests of man and enables man thereby to achieve a sense of proportion and a finer estimate of values. Forget not that selfishness is a stage of unfoldment, and that it is a necessary stage whereby humanity learns the price of self-interest.

3. The personality mind.  This assumes control over the man and leads him to prove the nature of power and of success and—above all else—of integration. This too is a necessary phase and precedes a stage of awakening.

These three great Lives Who have associated Themselves with the Lord of the World might be regarded as constituting aspects of His personality, though this is not technically so. The name Sanat Kumara is not His true name; it is only the first letter of that name which is known only to the Masters, whilst the second letter is known only to the Chohans. The first syllable of His name is known in the Council Chamber at Shamballa, but the rest of His name remains unknown as yet. The three Buddhas of Activity are to the planetary Logos (to give you another definition) what the Spiritual Triad is to the dedicated personality of the initiated disciple, for such is the spiritual status of the planetary Logos; the one of the three Buddhas now coming into activity is the one Who works through the spiritual will.

Within the body of the planetary Logos humanity is slowly building that which they call the antahkarana; this is, in reality, the linking thread between the head centre of Sanat Kumara and His heart centre. Ponder on these words. There is a mystery involved here and it is little that I can do to make it clearer. As humanity builds or creates the triangles of light and of goodwill, they are in reality invoking a response activity from two of the Buddhas of Activity—the One Who works through the medium of the will aspect, and the One Who works through love in humanity, intelligently applied. Forget not that these three great Buddhas summarise in a peculiar sense the transmuted essence of the previous solar system in which intelligent activity was the goal. Today, that essence underlies all the activity of this solar system but is motivated by love, which was not the case in the earlier manifestation. The Buddhas Themselves form a deeply esoteric Triangle.

The two types of triangles now being created by a mere handful of people are related to that basic triangle. A third type of triangle will at some much later date be constructed but only when these two earlier types are well established in the consciousness of humanity. Then the activity of all the three Buddhas will be involved and present, and a major planetary integration will take place. This is symbolised in man when the three centres in the head (the ajna centre, the brahmarandra centre, and the alta major centre) are all functioning and unshakably related, thereby constituting a triangle of light within the head. From the triangles now being created and those later to be assembled, the Buddhas of Activity will extract that essential quality (at present very rarely to be found) which will go to the building of this aspect of the planetary antahkarana.

The triangles of light and of goodwill are essentially invocative. They constitute the ABC of the coming Science of Invocation. Their strength is dependent upon the depth of feeling in the one case, and the strength of the will in the other, with which they are created. I have here given those disciples who are launching this new project which is so close to my heart a new and useful hint.  This work must go on. It is because the entire concept is so new and different to anything hitherto projected that it seems so impossible of achievement; the triangles project has its incentive in such highly esoteric sources that some disciples regard the work as exceedingly difficult and thus complicate, by their thinking, its essential simplicity; others regard it as the simplest thing in the world, and by an emphasis upon the exoteric and the organisational angle, they again hinder the true type of triangle being created. Disciples need to be aware of the true proposed plan and find ways to make clear the middle position between the difficulties brought forward and the simplicities which distort.

Perhaps I may help to clarify somewhat the minds responsible for the initial steps in this deeply esoteric enterprise. It is different to the intellectual and practical work which the men and women of goodwill are asked to do and will do; it is not what some earnest people regard as goodwill work or a phase of the goodwill work. The forming of triangles of light and of goodwill concerns the reservoir of energy upon the inner and etheric side of life which will automatically and with full circulatory effect enable the exoteric work of the men and women of goodwill to make progress. It is not goodwill per se, but the creation of triangles of energy within the etheric body of the planet which are deliberately qualified by goodwill. The two phases of the work are necessarily complementary to each other but must not be regarded as one. The triangles of light must be qualified by or become the agents of goodwill, and the two groups are closely interrelated. The men and women of goodwill need know nothing of these triangles unless it is deemed wise and they are individually advanced enough to react correctly, but their work along the lines of goodwill will be successful or non-successful (I speak from the long range view) according to the intensity of purpose and the depth of love demonstrated by the two groups of triangle members.

Those responsible for the creative work upon the outer field must begin with the esoteric work. I am writing here for disciples, some of whom are members of my Ashram, and for the New Group of World Servers; these are responsible for carrying forward the work as planned. The two groups of triangles already formed are in reality building a thoughtform anent this work which will evoke response from the true builders.

It will be apparent to you, therefore, that this creative work, with its intelligent and practical purposes and its ability when rightly functioning to unite the exoteric and the esoteric workers in one spiritual undertaking, originates in reality in Shamballa itself and was grasped—as to intent and purpose—by Masters upon the first and second rays, though primarily the second ray disciple and Master understood it the most easily.  Later, when steady and systematic work has been done, and the idea is familiar to the public, this activity will form an important part of the new world religion and be better understood; it will have its own inner group who will work entirely subjectively, building the triangles of light and of goodwill, and then will work objectively, directing the activities of those who are building the organisational aspect of triangles of practical goodwill on earth with an effective subsidiary activity.  That time is not yet.

Today we have the creation of a general thoughtform or the germinating of the seed of an idea. Later, when the true outer work begins, its potency will be objectively demonstrated because the Buddhas of Activity will gradually become aware of the existence of the thoughtform in its nature of light and its quality of goodwill. They will then pour of Their life into it as need arises and emergency decrees. Then gradually "the will of God will hold sway," as our injunction expresses it. Paralleling all this will be the work of the men and women of goodwill throughout the world, but in itself entirely objective—worldwide and amazingly useful.

Disciples need to learn to think in terms of group synthesis. This implies the achieving by them of deepened subjective relationships and increased sensitivity to the higher impression and the inner inspiration. The vertical life of the spirit and the horizontal life of relationship must be expressed simultaneously in some measure, before the significance of these Rules can be somewhat grasped.

We have been considering Shamballa, and I have given you some information (hitherto not communicated in words) regarding the Council Chamber of Sanat Kumara and of Those Who constitute its membership. I would pause here to remind you of two facts:

1. Shamballa is a state of consciousness or a phase of sensitive awareness wherein there is acute and dynamic response to divine purpose—a response made possible by the synthesis of purpose and of spiritual relationship which exists between Those Who are associated with Sanat Kumara.

2. Brotherhood, as it essentially is, constitutes a major mystery; also it is one which is only in process of solving, and that only on the two higher levels of the cosmic physical plane—those levels which we call the logoic and the monadic.

I am aware that you understand brotherhood in terms of the One Father and His children. That understanding is in itself so limited and inaccurate that it serves mainly to distort the truth; yet all that you can grasp at this time is embodied in this concept. The nearest description of the true relationship might be said to be as follows: Brotherhood is an expression of the relation which the planetary Logos (on the cosmic mental plane) bears to His Personality as it expresses itself through the planet with all its forms of life, upon the cosmic physical plane; this relationship is focussed through Sanat Kumara Who is the individualised Mind of that great Life. Wording it otherwise, the planetary Logos on His Own plane is to Sanat Kumara what the soul is to the human personality upon the physical plane in the three worlds. The sum total of the relation and of the relationships set up is, therefore, inadequately covered by the word "brotherhood."

"Fellowship," so frequently used to express a similar idea, is in reality the mode whereby a dimly sensed brotherhood seeks to make its presence felt. The words "the fellowship of Christ" indicate the emergence of this concept subjectively upon the mental plane; this will be followed, as time elapses, by concrete manifestation upon the physical plane. It is this idea which lies behind the glibly used words "idea, ideal and idol," and which is also responsible for the growing sense of responsibility which characterises all human advancement upon the way of life. It is this basic idea which governs the Council Chamber at Shamballa and which constitutes the motivating impulse behind the planetary expression of livingness. It is this also which characterises the ideal for which the Hierarchy stands and which implements the Plan; it is this spiritual planning which results in the growing "forms of relationship" which today seem to be taking definite shape in the concretising of the divine project: Right Human Relations.

I have written these opening remarks because it is this elevated understanding of brotherhood which conditions divine purpose and which leads to the spiritual planning that will give you the due to the third major injunction, with this we shall now deal. This injunction is worded as follows:

5. Let Transfiguration follow Transformation, and may Transmutation disappear.

I would here remind you that in these fourteen rules we must approach our theme from the angle of the initiate-consciousness and not from that of the blended soul-personality consciousness. It is the higher approach which is here indicated, the problem of the initiate-group and not that of the individual within the group. Hence the great difficulty in putting any of these teachings into words. To the average aspirant to accepted discipleship, the three words which distinguish this third major injunction (but which symbolically constitute the fifth injunction in the rule) might be defined as follows: The ideas conveyed are those of an aspirant to the Mysteries as he faces initiation. Let us take these words in the order given in Rule XIII.

1. Transfiguration: That stage upon the Path of Initiation wherein the third initiation is undergone, wherein the personality is irradiated by the full light of the soul and the three personality vehicles are completely transcended; they have become simply forms through which spiritual love may flow out into the world of men in the salvaging task of creation.

2. Transformation: The evolutionary process which is carried on upon the Path of Discipleship, in which the disciple transforms his lower threefold "appearance" or personality and begins to display divine "quality." His physical body becomes obedient to the dictates of his mind, which is becoming responsive to the higher mind through the medium of the soul; his emotional nature becomes the receptacle of buddhi or of the intuition; then, after the third initiation it disappears altogether, and the buddhic vehicle becomes the main instrument of sentiency. The mind, in due course, is equally transformed by impression from the higher mind, as it endeavours to implement the will nature of the Monad.

3. Transmutation: The method whereby that which is lower is absorbed by the higher, whereby force is transmuted into energy, whereby the energy of the three lower centres is carried up into the three higher centres (head, heart and throat) and which later enables the initiate to centralise all the energies in the three directing centres in the head. This transmuting process goes forward under the pressure of daily life experience, under the magnetic effect of soul contact, and as the inevitable result of evolution itself.

All these three spiritualising processes are well known, in theory at least, to all spiritual aspirants; they are expressions of soul-personality intention and effective interplay; they also constitute a paralleling activity to the task of building the antahkarana, as modes of alignment play a large part in the process of transmutation.

It is not, however, with these attitudes, processes and interpretations that the initiate is concerned, but with the significance of these processes in terms of the completed antahkarana and from the point of view of the "angle of intention" of the Monad. In other words: What do Transfiguration and Transformation signify to Members of the Hierarchy as They face the Way of the Higher Evolution? What can these words imply to Those for Whom the soul, the mediating principle, no longer has any factual significance?

Consider for a moment that the initiate who has undergone the first major initiation (the Transfiguration) and the two initiations of the threshold (the Birth and Baptism of the Christian Mysteries) has created the antahkarana in order to establish direct relation between the Monad and the personality, between the centre of universal awareness or identification and the form-expression in the three worlds. The antahkarana is constructed and constitutes an active channel of contact. The soul which has for ages directed the various and varying personalities is no longer in existence; the causal body has disappeared, shattered at the moment when the initiate (at the fourth initiation) cries out and says: "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" The Temple of Solomon, the spiritual temple "not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens," is no longer required; it has served its ancient purpose, and that which has been deemed eternal must disappear in the light of THAT to which eternity is only a phase of that which shall later be revealed.

All that now remains for the initiate are the two points of living purpose to which we give the names of spirit-matter or life-appearance. The lesson ahead of the initiate is to realise the inner meaning (not the obvious and easily grasped meaning) that spirit is matter at its highest point, and matter is spirit at its lowest. This involves the free interplay of life-energy, consciously applied as the result of age-long processes, and matter-force, via the antahkarana. The "rainbow bridge" becomes a channel for the impact of monadic or life energy upon substance, so that substance, taking form under the cyclic intention of the planetary Logos, may become increasingly coloured or qualified by the energy of universality. You can see from the above somewhat involved sentences how inadequate is language to express the understanding and the intention of the Hierarchy.

To the initiate, therefore, the two words, Transfiguration and Transformation, mean something quite different than they mean to a disciple, whilst Transmutation is now meaningless to him, for there is nothing within him which requires transmuting. It might consequently be stated that:

1. Transmutation concerns the expression of the life force upon the three lower planes of human living and evolution.

2. Transformation concerns in a most peculiar manner the three aspects of mind upon the mental plane:

1. The lower mind
2. The son of mind, the soul
3. The higher mind

3. Transfiguration concerns the life of the Spiritual Triad upon its own three levels of identification.

To this might be added the fact that:

1. The three lower planes of transmutation are the dense, liquid and gaseous sub-planes of the cosmic physical plane.

2. The mental plane is a unique location (or state of consciousness) whereon or wherein the lower planes are subjected to impression from the three higher. The higher three and the lower three are subjected to a definitely esoteric and mysterious process, and it is on this plane that the work of transmutation is completed—from the angle of the initiate.

3. The three planes of the Spiritual Triad are the spheres whereon transformation goes forward. This transformation has naught to do with the transforming of the personality, but is uniquely related to the interior work of the Hierarchy and the effect of this living, developing intensity upon the Members of the Hierarchy. Five planes are therefore involved in these two phases of the divine work.

4. The two highest planes (the monadic and the logoic) are the planes of transfiguration, from the point of view of the higher initiate. By then the processes of transmutation have dropped below the threshold of consciousness, and though the initiate (working with forms in the three worlds) has his instrument upon the outer physical plane, his own work and hierarchical activity is strictly triadal and monadic, with a steadily growing responsiveness to logoic intent.

Let us now consider the phases of transfiguration and transformation as far as is possible in an exoteric instruction, and "may transmutation disappear" for all disciples as time elapses, and that with speed— owing to the great need today for hierarchical workers.

It might here be asked: What is the work undertaken by the Masters Themselves upon the three planes of the Spiritual Triad? Students are well aware that many of the Masters are occupied with the evolutionary processes of the various kingdoms in nature in the three lower worlds. They forget that the majority are not so occupied. Have you ever wondered what it is that incites a Master to stay working in the three worlds and with His mind focussed upon its evolutionary processes? Have you ever considered what else it might be possible that intrigued and demanded His interest?

The self-centred attitude of mankind is inclined to believe that human need, and incidentally the need of the other kingdoms in nature, are all that prompts the Hierarchy to carry on its work of salvaging and stimulation. But that is only a partial estimate of the work which They are doing. In the processes of carrying forward Their work, the consciousness of the Master is being steadily expanded, and this because of the nature of Their work in the three worlds; it necessarily becomes more and more inclusive. That is the effect upon Him, as He works on behalf of humanity or on behalf of the other kingdoms in nature. There is a definite and evolutionary effect, but on the higher three levels of the Spiritual Triad, another type of evolutionary impulse is directing His activities.

I have told you elsewhere that consciousness (as we understand it) is being transcended, and a new aspect of universal sentiency is taking its place. To this development I have given the inadequate name of Identification. This is a word which involves consciousness, which invokes the will, which is dynamic in nature, inclusive in contact, and which is also based upon the doctrine of non-separativeness.

This, however, is only a beginning of an entirely new phase of development; consciousness eventually drops below the level of perception. It becomes as automatic and unregistered in its expression as animal instinct is to the human being. It functions, but the man is not consciously aware of it. It is a protective mechanism. The will aspect of the Monad supersedes but does not negate love (which has become, in its turn, instinctual); a one-pointed, rapier-like assumption of identification takes the place of the inclusiveness hitherto felt and practised. Perhaps I can convey to you something of what I mean by pointing out that the circle with the point at the centre is symbolic of the perfected man. He is rounded out; he is inclusive both vertically (soul contact) and horizontally (human relationship), yet he stands at the centre of his consciousness and of its self-imposed ring-pass-not. From thence he never moves, but is aware all the time of all that proceeds within his sphere of influence. Here is the symbol of the Master, from a specific point of attainment.

But the Master Himself is not static. His field of work is clear; His realm of contacts—human, subhuman and super-human—is also clear. Within the ring-pass-not and in the world of sentiency and in relation to the world of loving understanding, He stands the Master.

It is at this precise point in time and space that the work of Transformation begins for the Master—a transformation which is brought about by the unfoldment and the development made possible upon the three levels of the Spiritual Triad. As this transformation takes place, a new activity supervenes which finally enables the Master to break through the planetary ring-pass-not, and thus arrive at the door of the Higher Evolution.

What I have now to say may be made somewhat clearer by means of the following symbol.  The Master has now penetrated into another cosmic level, but He is still within the aura of the One Life. Now the cosmic astral plane is revealed to Him.  He sees the reason why, first of all, sentiency had to be developed; why it had then to be used and mastered and finally had to be completely negated— negated in such a manner that it dropped below the level of consciousness. There is no glamour upon the cosmic astral plane, and only those who have dominated sentient reaction upon all levels of the cosmic physical plane and are completely free from it, can then—through the illumined will and through the power of that mysterious quality (if I may so call a factual expression) of identification— direct the lowest aspect of cosmic desire upon the cosmic astral plane. This necessarily has to be tuned in with that to which they are irrevocably related. This identification is therefore the highest expression of divine purpose upon the cosmic physical plane, even whilst it is the lowest aspect of the cosmic astral desire.  Therefore, my brothers, the transformation with which this rule deals is the transformation of consciousness into identification. More than that I may not say. To express the true meaning I have no words or symbols.

In this line of approach through identification, the Master builds that of which the spiritual correspondence is the manasic antahkarana. The antahkarana which is now emerging is a projection from the Ashram of a Master; there are, therefore, seven ways into the Way of the Higher Evolution. These seven ways correspond to the seven Ashrams upon the seven Rays; they are related also to the seven initiations, to the seven principles of man, and to all the other many septenates.

It is the force of Will, generated by the Master, during the process of:

1. Attaining the fifth initiation
2. Working in the three worlds of creative salvaging
3. Achieving ashramic purpose and consequent group activity
4. Manifesting ray energy
5. Demonstrating a faculty which is known only to initiates who have passed beyond the third initiation.

This provides the focussed intention which enables the Master to attain what is called transformation, and later, to project the dynamic impulse of His spiritual will in such a manner that He succeeds in piercing the planetary ring-pass-not; He is then given the freedom of the world, and not just the freedom of the worlds.

It will be obvious that I am dealing with the subject of the sixth initiation.  When this initiation has been consummated, the Chohan then transcends the three worlds of the Spiritual Triad and is focussed as a "projecting agent of the Lighted Will" as it expresses itself upon the monadic plane. This stage of unfoldment is in reality the Ascension initiation, the true significance of which will be revealed through the medium of the coming world religion.

There then follows, as a result of this, what is called the true Transfiguration. This enables the initiate to function upon the logoic or highest plane of the cosmic physical plane. This—in Christian phraseology—is called the "sitting down upon the right hand of God in Heaven." There the man who has attained this seventh initiation is transfigured. The first contact comes along the line which he has projected as a result of transformation; it is made with That which has ever overshadowed Sanat Kumara. The Chohan has now taken the seventh initiation.

6. Let the O.M. be heard right at the centre of the group, proclaiming God is All.

It is not my intention to interpret this final phrase of Rule XIII. Its meaning lies beyond your most elevated comprehension. It concerns the transmutation of the O.M. into the originating SOUND, bringing certain basic transformation and resulting in a transfiguration which extends to the entire planet and has reference to a certain major planetary initiation. With these matters we are not concerned. With them, only a few of the more advanced Masters are concerned. Therefore we will wait until, through resolution, we have resolved our spiritual problems, transmuted our lower natures and undergone the lower aspects of both transformations, and are consequently ready for the third initiation—that of the Transfiguration.

37. RULE FOURTEEN

In this final rule for disciples and initiates, a great summation is embodied. I would here point out again (as I have so frequently in the past) that the obvious meaning—no matter how elevated—is not that with which we shall deal. It is the significance behind the meaning which is ever the concern of the initiate mind. Students would do well to remember the following sequence of words, embodying ideas: Symbol, Meaning, Significance, Light, regarding light as the emanating creative energy—the organiser of the symbol, the revealer of the meaning, the potency of the significance.

We have studied the rules and have penetrated deeply into the world of significances. Most of you have not, however, passed beyond the stage of groping in the world of meaning. The reason for this is that you have not yet taken the third initiation. I would ask you also to bear in mind that the world of symbols is that of the personal life, of the phenomenal world as that phrase covers the three worlds of human evolution; the world of meaning is the world in which the soul lives and moves with intention and understanding; the world of significance is the world of the Spiritual Triad, which only confers its freedom fully after the third initiation.

The words dealt with in this Rule XIV are apparently so simple that they can be easily understood. I will attempt to show you that their real meaning is deep and esoteric to what you call the nth degree.

Rule XIV

For Applicants: Listen. Touch. See. Apply. Know.

For Disciples and Initiates: Know. Express. Reveal. Destroy. Resurrect.

The following relationships should be noted, for the first is the seed of the other.

APPLICANTS                   INITIATES

Listen                        Know

Touch                        Express

See                        Reveal

Apply                        Destroy

Know                        Resurrect

You will note that the applicant eventually arrives at knowledge and begins to know; the disciple or the initiate starts with knowing, and through his ability to express esoterically that which he knows is able to reveal the light, and by that light to destroy all illusion, glamour and maya; he brings about resurrection upon the physical plane—a resurrection from the death which physical plane life inevitably confers.

The five words as given to the applicant are indeed relatively simple. Most aspirants understand their meaning to a certain extent. They know that the listening mentioned has naught to do with the sense of physical hearing, and that the touch to be developed has reference to sensitivity and not the sensory perception of the physical vehicle. They know likewise that the sight to be cultivated is the power to see the beauty underlying form, to recognise the subjective divinity and to register also the love conveyed through the medium of symbols. The application of soul energy to the affairs of daily life and the establishing of those conditions which permit of soul knowledge are the elementary lessons of the aspirant. With these I need not deal, except in so far as they give the clue to the significance of the five words as given to the initiated disciple.

Let us take each of these five words and seek to ascertain their significance. But first of all, I would like to point out that here we are concerned with monadic signatures, with that which synthesises significances, and with that which contributes vital significance to the initiated life. I would have you, as you read my words, retreat within yourselves and seek to think, feel and perceive at your highest possible level of consciousness. The effort to do this will bear much fruit and bring rich reward to you. You will not grasp the full intention of these words, but your sense of awareness will begin to react to triadal impression. I know not how else to word this, limited as I am by the necessity of language.

You may not register anything consciously, for the brain of the average disciple is as yet insensitive to monadic vibration. Even if the disciple is capable of some responsiveness, there are not the needed words in which to express the sensed idea or to clothe the concept. It is therefore impossible to put the divine ideas into their ideal form and them bring them down into the world of meaning, and from thence into the world of symbols. What I say will therefore have more significance towards the close of this century, when men will have recovered from the chaos and cruelty of war, and when the new and higher spiritual influences are being steadily poured out. I write, my brothers, for the future.

1. Know

What is the difference between the knowing of the aspirant and the knowledge of the initiated disciple? It is the difference which exists between two differing fields and areas of perception. The aspirant is told first of all to "know thyself"; he is then told to know the relation of form and soul, and the area covered by his knowledge is that of the three worlds, plus the level upon the mental plane on which his soul is focussed. The initiated disciple knows the relation of the periphery to the centre, of the One to the many, and of unity to diversity. The applicant is concerned with triplicity: himself as the knower, his field of knowledge, and that which is the agent of knowing, the mind. The initiated disciple is beyond registering triplicity and is occupied with the duality of manifestation, with life-energy as it affects or is related to matter-force, with spirit and substance. The knowledge of the initiate has naught to do with consciousness as the mind recognises that factor in the evolutionary process; his knowledge is related to the faculty of the intuition and to that divine perception which sees all things as within itself. Perhaps the simplest way to express the knowledge of the initiate is to say that it is direct awareness of God, thus putting it into mystical terms; the knowledge of the aspirant is related to that aspect of divinity which we call the soul in form. Putting this in still another way, I might point out that the aspirant is concerned with the knowledge of soul and matter, whilst the initiate is concerned with soul and spirit.

If I say to you, my brothers, that the knowledge of the initiate is concerned with that which is produced by SOUND and not by the A.U.M. or the O.M., I shall have linked up these comments with much else given previously in the analysis of these fourteen rules. The "listening" of the aspirant has now been transformed into the effectual recognition of that which the Sound has created. I refer not here to the creation of the phenomenal world, or to the world of meaning which is essentially the Plan or the pattern underlying that phenomenal world, but to the intention or the Purpose Which motivated the creative Sound; I am dealing with the impulsive energy which gives significance to activity and to the life-force which the Sound centralises at Shamballa.

It is not the fault of humanity that it is only now possible for the significance of the divine purpose to emerge more clearly in the consciousness of the initiated disciple. It is a question of timing and of movement in space; it concerns the relation of the Hierarchy, working with the Plan, to Shamballa, the recipient (by means of the Sound) of the creative energy which it is the divine intention to expend in producing a perfect expression of the divine Idea. It is to the knowledge of this relationship and of its effects that the first word of Rule XIV refers.

It was the dawning of this significance upon the consciousness of the Christ—a consciousness enlightened, purified and divinely focussed—that forced Him to cry out:  "Father, not my will but Thine be done." He received a vision of the emerging divine intention for humanity and (through humanity) for the planet as a whole. In the hierarchical stage of development which Christ had attained and which made Him the Head of the Hierarchy and the Master of all the Masters, His consciousness was entirely at one with the Plan; its application to life in the three worlds, and its goal of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth and the emergence of the fifth kingdom in nature, were now for Him simply the fulfilling of the law, and to that fulfillment His entire life was and had been geared. The Plan, its goal, its techniques and methods, its laws and their application, its phenomenal effects, the hindrances to be met, the energy (that of love) to be employed, and the close and growing relation and interplay between the Hierarchy and Humanity, between the heart centre of the planetary Logos and the creative centre, were known to Him and fully understood. At the highest point of this consummated knowledge, and at the moment of His complete surrender to the necessary sacrifice of His life to the fulfilling of the Plan, suddenly a great expansion of consciousness took place. The significance, the intention, the purpose of it all, and the extent of the divine Idea as it existed in the mind of the "Father," dawned on His soul (not on His mind, but on His soul). He saw still further into the significance of divinity than had ever seemed possible; the world of meaning and the world of phenomena faded out and—esoterically speaking—He lost His All. These are words necessarily meaningless to you. For the time being, neither the energy of the creative mind nor the energy of love was left to Him. A new type of energy became available—the energy of life itself, imbued with purpose and actuated by intention.

For the first time, the relation of the Will, which had hitherto expressed itself in His life through love and the creative work of inaugurating the new dispensation and the launching for all time of the Kingdom of God, became clear to Him. At that point He passed through the Gethsemane of renunciation.

A hint lies here. This high point of attainment of the Christ—as related in the Gospel story—was reached in Gethsemane, and for a brief moment we are given an insight into an aspect or happening of the Sixth Initiation. It was this event and spiritual crisis in the life of the Christ (taking place as He overshadowed His disciple, Jesus) which enabled Jesus on His own level of spiritual development to take the fourth initiation, that of the Crucifixion or the Great Renunciation. The numbers four and six are closely connected, and the lesser renunciation (great only from the human point of view) makes the higher renunciation possible eventually, and vice versa. Running through many parts of the Gospel story are two paralleling histories; the lesser world of discipleship profits by the achievements of those who take the higher initiations, and thus is demonstrated the close unity which forever exists within the Hierarchy and—focussing through the Christ—the synthesis which is beginning to be formed between the Hierarchy and Shamballa. This is taking place in this era for the first time in human history. The recognition of this emerging synthesis between Will and Love produced a definite effect in the consciousness of the Christ and led Him to know much that had hitherto been concealed from Him. These are deep mysteries. Their value to the disciple in training lies in the recognised and considered relationships.

These rules are—as you know—the rules controlling group life; they constitute the key to the laws under which all planetary groups work. The hierarchical life, through its major aspect of Love, was a familiar area of consciousness and well-known to the Masters and to the Master of Them all, the Christ. But a further "knowing" lay ahead of even this "perfected Son of God"; the nature and the mind of that great Being, embodied in the Lord of the World at Shamballa, was now revealed to Him.

It is this living realisation of Being and of identification with the planetary Logos upon the cosmic mental plane which constituted the unfolding awareness of the Christ upon the Way of the Higher Evolution. Therefore, experience, perception and Being are the keynotes of:

1. The Path of Evolution.
2. The mode of unfoldment upon the Path.
3. The state of divine focus upon the Way.

In other words, you have the states of Individualisation, of Initiation, and of Identification.

The relation between the listening of the aspirant and the knowledge of the initiated disciple has been expressed for us in a certain ancient writing as follows:

"Dimly the one who seeks hears the faint whisper of the life of God; he sees the breathing of that whisper which disturbs the waters of his Spatial life. The whisper penetrates. It then becomes the Sound of many waters and the Word of many voices. Great is the confusion but still the listening must go on. Listening is the seed of obedience, O Chela on the Path.

More loudly comes the voice; then suddenly the voices dim and listening now gives place to knowing—the knowledge of that which lies behind the outer form, the perception of that which must be done. Order is seen. The pattern clear emerges.

Knowing is the seed of conscious doing, O Chela on the Path. Listening and knowledge also fade away and that which they produce can then be seen. Being emerges and union with the One. Identity is known—not on this plane but on that higher sphere where move and speak the greater Sons of Life. Being alone is left. The work is done."

2. Express

We come now to the second word of the fourteenth rule for disciples and initiates—the word Express. This cannot be correctly understood apart from the earlier word imparted to applicants—the word Touch. I would have you note that all the words given to the neophyte refer basically to something he must do in reference to himself, some task he must undertake which will make him more fit for advancement, or some process of apprehension which will enable him to function in a better and more sensitive instrument. This might be called the "introverted stage" of training because it brings the would-be disciple to a better knowledge of himself; he grasps the fact that he himself, the microcosm, is the key to the Macrocosm; he is the clue to the future, and he holds within himself the revelation which must precede esoteric action. In contradistinction to this, the words for the disciple and the initiate mark the attainment of a capacity to work from a most deeply esoteric centre in a pronouncedly occult way. By this I mean that the initiate, working as we have seen from a standpoint of knowledge, is at the same time no longer self-centred, but is now preoccupied with that in which he lives and moves and has his being. His interests are with the Whole and not with the part; his interests are those which will affect his environment (an aspect of that living vibrant Whole) and not himself; his task is the hierarchical one of the salvaging of others, and not his own salvation.

If you will note your own present attitudes and actions, you will discover that primarily (I might add almost necessarily) they centre around yourselves, your own recognitions, your own grasp of truth, and your own progress upon the Path. But—as you achieve initiate status—self-interest declines until it disappears and, as an ancient Word has it, "only God is left"; only that remains in consciousness which is THAT, which is beauty, goodness and truth; which is not form but quality, which is that which lies behind the form and that which indicates destiny, soul, place, and status. Ponder on these words, for they convey to you where (as evolution goes on) you will later lay the emphasis.

In considering the word Express I can, I believe, make this distinction somewhat clearer. When the beginner on the Path ponders the significance of expression, he is occupied with his ability to express the truth which he theoretically recognises but to which he cannot as yet give form. This is valuable because it feeds his aspiration, centres his attention upon himself and increases his naive self-interest. This, frequently, presents its own problems, such as a sense of failure or an undue registration of success, or it fails to develop a sense of proportion.

When, however, the initiate takes into his consciousness this injunction to express, it signifies to him not his own needs or requirements, but the need of others for those expressions of truth which will guide them on their way. This word, therefore, is to him an injunction to be creative. The initiate creates outside himself that which is his individual contribution to the totality of the creative forms whereby the Hierarchy is attempting to create "a new heaven and a new earth." He is not occupied with what he himself expresses as a soul within a personality; he has developed the habit of right soul expression in the three worlds, and the appearance of his quality (to revert to the use of our original words—life, quality and appearance) is automatic and without any planning on his part. He is, however, occupied with the sequence of activities which I will list as follows:

1. The preservation of hierarchical contact, of which direct, conscious soul contact is now an incident because it is now a habit.

2. An awareness, unbroken and consistent, of his ashramic place; I refer not to location but to status—a very different matter.

3. Reflective concentration upon the hierarchical Plan as his particular Ashram has assumed responsibility for a measure of it; that responsibility he seeks to share intelligently and effectively.

4. Recognition of the immediate contribution of the Ashram and his immediate contribution as an integral part of it.  This does away with visionary mysticism and produces the practicing occultist.

5. A study of the creative methods of his particular Ray and an imaginative visualisation of that which will be expressed when the desired creative work has taken due form.

6. Conscious projection of his contribution onto the outer physical plane. A tangible creative project is undertaken and eventually produced.

7. He thus plays his part in bringing into objectivity the creative undertaking of his Ashram.

The seed of this creative work is that which the Ashram has planned for the exact moment of humanity's presented need, correct as to timing and placement. This may not be what humanity believes it needs; it is essentially what the Hierarchy recognises as the needed factor, leading to the needed progress for the race at any specific moment in time.  For instance, humanity believes today that its major need is peace and material comfort and is working vaguely for both; the Hierarchy knows that its major need is the recognition of the folly of past separateness and the cult of goodwill. Towards these ends, workers in the Ashrams are bending every effort. The creative task, therefore, of working disciples and initiates is to produce that presentation (appearance) of the necessitous truths in such a manner that the recognition of humanity may be so sound that right action can duly be taken. Hierarchical workers must therefore express the true need in form, appropriate to the registering capacity of humanity at this moment.

The creative work of expression does not consequently concern the development and personal progress of the initiate. He has been taken into the Ashram because of his development and because of the contribution he should be able to make to the ashramic creative purpose. What, as a neophyte, he "touched" because of what he could gain spiritually for himself (and this with sound motive) has now become that which must be expressed in the field of service of the initiate, exacting from him all that he has and leaving him nothing for the separated self.

A great creative activity involving all Ashrams—major and minor—is now being planned in the hierarchical assembly, and the work of all waiting and attentive disciples is to make that creative plan successful through its full expression upon the physical plane. This they must do through their grouped and blended activities, which will embody the full expression of all that they have achieved and gained in the earlier stages of their individual unfoldment. Thus you will see that from God the Creator of all that IS, down to the humblest disciple in the hierarchical centre, the theme of creativity dominates and is the expression (again occultly understood) of the divine intention. At present, what is called creative work by men is in reality an expression of themselves and of their appreciation of beauty as they see it, of truth as they grasp it, of psychology as they interpret it, of nature as they scientifically interpret it. According to their spiritual development and their intelligent perception, so will be the quality and the nature of their expression—but it will be theirs.

In the case of hierarchical workers however, the situation is different. They work to express that which the Ashram, through its group of workers, is seeking to express they seek to express the Plan, or as much of it as they can grasp; they are occupied with the expression of soul as that soul should be known in the culture and the civilisation immediately to be developed. They can work entirely free from self-interest; that which they create is not claimed by them but is regarded as an expression of hierarchical activity; they are free from the spirit to identify themselves with that which they expressed, but—having created that which their ashramic impulse has indicated—they pass on to a fresh expression of the dynamic, ever-moving purpose. They are not occupied with form, but with life, with organism rather than organisation, with ideas rather than ideals, and with essential truth rather than with carefully formulated theologies.

Christ expressed in Himself and refrained from putting it into form; He Himself was the truth, yet inevitably (because of its inherent life) that which He expressed took form and has greatly modified and coloured human thinking and planning, and this will be increasingly so. As the essence of Christianity emerges into expression (and in so doing destroys Churchianity) you have again a striking illustration of the truth of what I am seeking to emphasise. In the Christian Church, men have expressed themselves, not the Christ; they have imposed their interpretations of truth on Truth itself; they have created a massive organisation in every land but a living organism is non-existent. In the new world religion which is on its way, Christianity will be expressed through the creative activity of the Christ spirit through the medium of the world disciples and initiates; we shall then see the full expression of hierarchical truth—of which the Christ today is the symbol and exponent.

Neophytes and aspirants have "touched" that for which the Christ stood, and have then attempted to impose their comprehension of that which they contacted upon the rest of the world. Knowers, disciples and initiates express that which He represented (love-wisdom). This they do automatically and by force of habit, first in themselves and finally by a definitely planned creative activity in the outer world.

Therefore, my brothers, there lies ahead of all true aspirants an intermediate stage of decentralisation, of automatic spiritual living and of absorption into the Hierarchy through the medium of an Ashram; therein the Plan can be learnt. When this phase of development is completed the disciple can then begin to work creatively in line with hierarchical activity.

As we consider the next word on our list, we must hold in our minds what we have discussed anent the words Touch and Express. It might be said that the words which are given to aspirants and applicants are the seed or germ of the concepts indicated in the words for initiates and disciples. Until the earlier significances are mastered in the earlier phases of discipleship, the later illumined service—based upon the later words—is not possible. Always in the fresh attitude to the developing esoteric understanding of the initiate there is implicit the fact of transition from individual self-interest to a universal state of consciousness; this in time becomes the directing agent for individualised service—as rendered by the individual disciple upon the physical plane. The fusion of the two attitudes—inclusive realisation and specialised service—renders the task of the initiate peculiarly difficult. He has to hold two attitudes simultaneously, whilst at the same time subjecting himself to the training required in order to enable him to take his next step forward upon the Path. It is only whilst this condition persists that the initiate has any sense of triplicity. This is an important point to note. Bear this in mind as we discuss our next two words: See and Reveal.

3. Reveal

The objective of the strictly human evolution in this planetary cycle is sight, culminating in that spiritual perception which is the major gift of the soul to the personality when contact is made; this conveys the sense of attractive love, indicates the nature of things, reveals the world of meaning, and gives the great gift of light, knowledge and ultimate illumination. Such are the goals for the mystic, the aspirant and the pledged disciple. The greatest physical gift is that of sight, and it is the same upon a higher turn of the spiral within the world of the soul. When the disciple has achieved a measure of vision and is "in sight" of his goal, he can then be admitted to an Ashram wherein the nature of revelation can be made known to him. Men are apt to confuse vision and revelation, and I seek to clarify your minds somewhat on this matter; therefore, the preceding sentence is of major importance. Aspirants are prone to think that the goal towards which they move is that of soul contact, with a secondary goal of hierarchical position, and a third goal of service. This, however, is not correct.

The goal ahead of the aspirant is the consciousness of non-separateness and the recognition of a universal inclusiveness; the secondary goal is the ability to reveal the nature of that reality, Unity; the third goal is the ability to take those measures in the three worlds which will facilitate mankind's apprehension of these fundamentals. You will note how this last definition of the goal removes inevitably the factor of self-interest in its entirety. It might therefore be said that revelation concerns Oneness and nothing else. The practical nature of this truth is only recognised when the disciple attempts to do two things: to realise it individually, and to bring the nature of planetary unity and of non-separateness to the minds and into the lives of men everywhere.

The work of the aspirant is to see the light; only when this has become a fact in his consciousness can he begin to grasp the hidden revelation which that contacted and utilised light can reveal. Here is another key sentence for your consideration.

With the theme of light, of vision, and of illumination, I seek not here to deal. I have covered these subjects at length in the books which I have written, and they have also constituted the earnest search of the mystics of all time; and also the Scriptures and the literature of all nations give much information.

It is the subject of revelation and the task of the initiate to reveal with which I am concerned. The disciple, who represents the Ashram, must reveal to humanity the essential unity underlying all creation. This he does, first of all, by acting like a clear sheet of glass through which all may see the reality of Oneness as it demonstrates in practicing operation. When he has, through his own life and words, demonstrated his conscious participation in this basic unity, he passes on to practice ashramic methods of making this fundamental truth still more apparent. You can here see why—as a hierarchical technique—we brought to the attention of the general public the fact of the existence of the New Group of World Servers. They offer a practical expression of an existent unity, based upon oneness of motive, of recognition, of orientation (towards the spiritual world and towards the service of humanity), of methods and of ideas; and all this in spite of the fact that the physical plane relationship is usually non-existent and outer organisation and recognition lack.  The unity is subjective, and for that reason is impervious to every taint of separateness.

The inner organisation, to which we have given the name of the New Group of World Servers for the sake of recognition and identification, cannot be broken or in any way diminished, for it is constructed around a major principle of evolutionary growth which—when attained—indicates a registered consciousness of unity; this is something which, once recorded and known, cannot be lost or disproved. Once seen and realised, it becomes as much a fact in its possessor's consciousness as the recognition and utilisation of his own physical body. This he knows to be a complex organism which constitutes a functioning unity through the medium of the life principle; it is an incontrovertible fact in the realisation of the intelligent man.

When, therefore, sight has been attained and the light streams forth, revelation of the oneness of all life is a simple and immediate occurrence; it comes first of all to the disciple as a flash of wondrous informative and instinctive realisation and then steadies down, as progress is made, into a constant apprehension and appreciation; it eventually produces the motivating impulse of all action.

What is the immediate revelation which the initiates and the disciples of the world are seeking to bring to humanity? What aspect of this essential unity are they endeavouring to make simple and apparent? One of the easiest things in the world to say (as has, for instance, Krishnamurti) is that life is one; that there is nothing but unity. That is a trite formulation of a very ancient truth, and one which is today an occult platitude. But life is not yet one in consciousness, however true it may be in fact. The reason for this is that life is loving synthesis in action, and of that there is little today in demonstration. We have life in activity but love, based on realised unity and leading to expressed synthesis, is still absent. The vision of it is, however, upon the horizon of many, for in these days many are attaining sight and light is pouring in. Revelation will come when the world disciples and initiates have perfected the art of revelation.

The task ahead is simple. The important aspect, at this time, of the basic oneness underlying all forms, and which the workers of today must immediately emphasise, is the fact of the kingdom of God, of the planetary Hierarchy. The citizens of that kingdom and the members of that Hierarchy are gathered out of every nation, every political party, every social group, every religious cult or sect, and every organisation—no matter what their expressed objectives—and the universality of the field from which these people emerge, demonstrates their underlying unity. When this unity assumes adequate proportions in the eyes of mankind, a real synthesis will follow.

Therefore the call goes out at this time for hierarchical workers to reveal with greater emphasis the fact of the Hierarchy. This—if done on a large scale and through proper organisation—will destroy on a large scale the present world structure in the field of religion, of economics, and of politics; it is already doing so. An increase of pressure on the part of all who recognise the factual nature of the inner subjective kingdom of God, will produce amazing results. This kingdom, through its major power (a quality of synthesis, could you but realise it), is gathering together into itself men and women out of every nation and out of all parts of the Earth. It is absorbing them into itself not because they are orthodox or religious in the generally accepted sense of the term, but because of their quality.

Simultaneously, as their numbers increase, a reverse movement is taking place. Men are moving outward on to the physical plane, and doing this as a group in order to prove the factual nature of the world of unity into which they have succeeded in penetrating. They, therefore, are demonstrating oneness and synthesis in such a simple way that men everywhere can grasp it. The New Group of World Servers is the vanguard of the kingdom of God, the living proof of the existence of the world of spiritual Oneness.

To all applicants the call has gone out to see the Christ as He is, in order (as The New Testament puts it) that "as He is, so should we be in the world." To disciples and initiates the call goes out to reveal to the world the grouped formation of all spiritual workers, the nature of the Christ consciousness which knows no separation, which recognises all men everywhere as Sons of God in process of expression. This is all desired because of the need to emphasise the all-inclusive approach of divinity to humanity. These working disciples and initiates regard all as essentially one and as brothers, which repudiates all man-made theologies (religious, scientific, political or economic) and says to all men everywhere: "We are all the children of God; we are all equally divine; we are all on our way to the revelation of divinity, and this upon the physical plane of existence; it is what we reveal that is of importance; what is revealed to us is of lesser importance, though it has its due place in the process of training and perfecting."

There is an old catechism which seeks to make clear to the neophyte upon the verge of acceptance the distinction and the difference between vision and revelation. It is falling somewhat into disuse, owing to the fact that the applicant today starts on a much higher turn of the spiral than he did at the time the "form of interrogation" was compiled. I would like, however, to quote one or two of the questions and answers for the instruction of present-day aspirants.

A CATECHISM

What dost thou see, O disciple on the Path?

Naught but myself, O Master of my life.

Look closer at thyself and speak again. What seest thou?

A point of light which waxes and which wanes and makes the darkness darker.

Look with intense desire towards the dark and,when the light shines forth,

grasp opportunity. What now appears?

A horrid sight, O Master of my life. I like it not. It is not true. I am not this or that.

This evil selfish thing, it is not me. I am not this.

Turn on the light with will and power and fierce desire,

and then recount the vision that may come.  What seest thou?

Beyond the dark, revealed to me by means of light, I see a radiant form which beckons me.

What is this Being, standing gracious in the dark and in the light? Is it and can it be my self?

What dawns upon the sight as thou standest on the Way,

O worn and tired disciple, triumphant in the light?

A radiant shining form which is my Self, my soul. A dark and sombre figure, yet old and wise, experienced and sad. This is my self, my lower self, my ancient tried appearance upon the ways of earth. These two stand face to face and in between, the burning ground....They move and merge....The Path comes to an end.  The Way stretches before. Sight is attained, and in the light reality appears.

What canst thou now reveal, O Server on the way?

Revelation comes through me, O Lord of Life. I see it not.

Why canst thou see it now? What hinders apprehension?

Naught hinders me. I seek not sight for I have seen. My task is revelation. I seek naught for myself.

What comes thy way for revelation? What hast thou to reveal?

Only that which has for aeons long existed and has for aye been here. The Oneness of the Presence;

the area of love; the living, loving, wise, inclusive One, enfolding, being all and leaving naught.

To whom must come this revelation, O Server of the world of living things?

To all enfolded in the living, loving Presence; to those who all unknown to them

maintain that Presence and for ever shall endure—as doth that Presence.

And who are those who live within that Presence but know it not?

They are myself and thou, and still they are myself and still are all I meet. It is the one in every form who think mayhap that form is all; who living thus in time and space, see not the light or life within the form, who hide within, behind the veils, between the four and five (the four kingdoms in nature and the kingdom of God) and see naught else. To them I must reveal the truth.

How will you do this hardest of all tasks, O triumphing disciple?

By letting it be seen I am myself the truth; by living as a fragment of that Presence and seeing all its parts. And thus is revelation brought into the four and by the fifth.

This is all that I can give you at this time upon the word and the injunction given to the initiate: Reveal. I would point that it is not his task to reveal the world of symbols. The five senses and the mind principle are adequate to bring that about. It is not his task to reveal the world of meaning. That, the disciple arrives at and interprets as he develops soul consciousness. His is the task to reveal the world of significances, the world of reality and of essential truth. Because of the success of the evolutionary process, this latter task is growing, and more and more initiated revealers will be needed during the period immediately ahead. Forget not that the invocative appeal of the mass of men, and the intelligent voicing of demand by those prepared intelligently to move forward, will inevitably call forth the needed response and the needed revealers of reality.

The next word which we are to consider is one of the most difficult for me to explain. The reason for my difficulty is that you are all imbued with the ordinary ideas anent these familiar words, and therefore it is well-nigh impossible for me to convey their significances to you from the angle of the initiate-consciousness. Identified as you are with the form aspect and with life in the three worlds, it is hard for you to comprehend the state of mind and the type of awareness which distinguishes those who are free from these all-compelling forces in the three worlds which condition human beings, thus bringing about erroneous orientation and preventing what is really meant by spiritual perception. The attitude of the average man, and even of the average disciple, is that of one who looks in from the periphery towards the centre, of one who is preoccupied with the shell of life and is not conscious of Reality as is a member of the Hierarchy.

Therefore, when I tell you that these words for initiates which constitute what I have called Rule XIV have a connotation quite different from that to which you are accustomed, I am propounding for you a most difficult problem. The true understanding is, I realise, not possible for you but much can be gained by your effort to comprehend. What you mean when you speak of the abstract mind is not exactly true to the facts; the effort to think abstractly is really an effort to think as far as possible as an initiate thinks who has transcended the concrete mind and thinks, or rather is aware, in terms of life and not of form, of being and not that which anchors being on the physical plane—or even in terms of consciousness, as you understand it. Forget not that I have elsewhere told you that consciousness (as grasped by the personality and the soul) has little relation to that form of living awareness which distinguishes the initiate who is essentially an expression of the Monad through the medium of the three aspects of the Spiritual Triad. This is peculiarly so in connection with the two words Which remain for us to consider: Destroy and Resurrect.

4. Destroy

Destruction or the power and the wish to destroy which is characteristic of the undeveloped man, of the average man and of the probationary disciple is based upon the following impelling influences:

1. Lack of self-control along some line.

2. Desire to attain one's wishes by the removal of all obstacles.

3. Violent emotional reaction.

4. Revenge, hate, acquisitiveness and similar faults, based on lack of spiritual unfoldment.

5. The effort to remove hindrances within oneself, such as those implied in the rule for probationary disciples: Kill out desire.

6. The deliberate destruction of all that prevents contact with the soul.

7. The destroying of all links which hold the spiritual man in the three worlds.

These motives for destruction are all related to desire, to emotion and also to aspiration, implemented (towards the end of the cycle which leads to the treading of the Probationary Path) by the lower concrete mind. They cover a familiar case history and one which is well known to every sincere aspirant, or one which is realised for what they are at a lower level of life expression by the man who pays the penalties involved by this type of destruction. I feel no necessity to enlarge on this mode of destroying to students such as those who read this Treatise. This type of destruction is concerned mainly with form life in the three worlds, with individual aspiration and enterprise (from the lowest groping physical desire up to the aspiration for conscious soul life), and with experiment and experience upon the three planes of ordinary human living.

In this word "destroy" given (as an expressed command) for those who are members of the Hierarchy or who have moved or are moving from an affiliated relationship on the periphery of that Hierarchy toward the centre of activity and into close contact with some Ashram, the significance is very different.

The type of destruction here dealt with is never the result of desire; it is an effort of the spiritual will and is essentially an activity of the Spiritual Triad; it involves the carrying out of those measures which will hinder obstruction to God's will; it is the furthering of those conditions which will destroy those who are attempting to prevent divine purpose from materialising as the Plan—for which the Hierarchy is responsible. Therefore, it is connected primarily with the relation of Shamballa to the Hierarchy, and not with the relation of the Hierarchy to Humanity. This is a formidable esoteric statement and its implications must be considered most carefully.

This type of destruction has only a secondary relation to the destruction of form life as you know it. When steps are taken to implement divine purpose, the resultant effect may be the destroying of forms in the three worlds, but that is an effect and only a secondary destruction; something else has been destroyed on a higher level and outside the three worlds. This, in due time, may produce a form-reaction to which we may give the name of death. But the death of that form was not a primary objective and was not even considered, because it was not within the range of awareness of the destroyer.

The higher destruction which we are considering is related to the destruction of certain forms of consciousness which express themselves in great areas or extensive thoughtforms; these may have, in turn, conditioned human thinking. Perhaps the simplest illustration I can give you of this type of destruction would be concerned with the major ideologies which down the ages have conditioned or may condition humanity. These ideologies produce potent effects in the three worlds. This type of destruction affects those civilisations which condition the human family for long periods of time, which concern climatic conditions that predispose the forms in the four kingdoms to certain characteristics in time and space, which produce effects in the great world religions, in world politics and all other "conditioning forms of thinking." Does this convey much or little in connection with the concepts which I am attempting to make clear?

That which is destroyed, therefore, are certain group forms and these upon a large scale; this requires an exercise of the spiritual will to bring about, and does not require simply the withdrawing of the attention of the soul, the decision to vacate the form and the failure of the basic desire to perpetuate, which is what we imply when we speak of death in the three worlds. The lack of the will-to-live of which we so glibly speak has little relation, in reality, to the will itself; it refers only to its faint or distorted reflection in the three worlds; this is much more closely related to desire and aspiration than to pure will, as spiritually comprehended.

The Purpose of God (to use a familiar phrase) is that which implements the Plan. This purpose is the motivating life behind all that emanates from Shamballa and it is that which impulses all the activities of the Hierarchy; the task of the Hierarchy is to formulate the Plan for all forms of life in the three worlds and the four kingdoms in nature. This Plan, in time and space, is not in any way concerned with individual man or with the life of any microcosmic entity in any of the kingdoms of nature, but with the wholes, the cycles of time, with those vast plans of livingness which man calls history, with nations and races, with world religions and great political ideologies and with social organisations which produce permanent changes in types, constitutions, planetary areas and cyclic manifestations. It will therefore be obvious to you that from the standpoint of man's little mind, these plans are well-nigh impossible to grasp. From the standpoint of the vision of the initiate who has developed or is developing the wider grasp and who can see and think and vision (I care not what word you choose) in terms of the Eternal Now, the significance is clear; at times, the initiate creates and then anchors a germ of livingness; at times he builds that which can house his living idea with its conditioning qualities; at times, when these have served their purpose, he definitely and deliberately destroys. The reference is necessarily ever to form; with the initiate it is, however, to the "formless form" which is always the subjective aspect of the tangible world. It must be remembered that from the point of view of esotericism, all forms in the three worlds are tangible, in contradistinction to forms in the two higher worlds of the Spiritual Triad.

The destruction considered is that of the formless structure on which the grosser structure is built. Some understanding of this will come if you consider the relation of the four subplanes of the physical plane, the four etheric levels, and the three subplanes which we call the dense physical planes. These constitute our physical plane in its two aspects. This is only a reflection of the three planes of the three worlds and the four planes from the buddhic plane up to the logoic, which constitute the cosmic physical plane. The destruction considered by the initiate is connected with the subjective worlds of the four higher planes and the three worlds of human living, and of other forms of life such as the three subhuman kingdoms.

In the human family, death supervenes when the soul withdraws its consciousness thread and its life thread; this process of death is contained, however, entirely within the three worlds. The soul has its station on the higher levels of the mental plane, as well you know. In connection with the forms of expression to which I have referred above—cycles, civilisations, cultures, races, kingdoms in nature and so forth—their destruction is brought about from still higher sources than the three worlds in which they manifest. This destruction takes place under the direction of Shamballa as it evokes the will of the Hierarchy or some particular Ashram or some member of the Hierarchy in order to produce a predetermined result in the three worlds in line with the purpose of God. It might be said (accurately to a certain esoteric extent) that the destruction brought about in obedience to this fourth word in Rule XIV is the destruction of some aspect of the plan as it has been functioning in the three worlds, and this under divine purpose and intent.

This destruction is not outwardly so conclusive as is death—on the physical plane—of a man, though that is not essentially the rapidly consummated process as is usually surmised. The physical form may die and disappear, but an inner process of dying of the subtler bodies supervenes and the death process is not complete until the astral and mental bodies have disintegrated and the man stands free in his causal or soul body. So it is, on a much larger scale, with the death or destruction of phases of the divine Plan, engineered by the Hierarchy in conformity with the divine Purpose. There is an overlapping between the building process and the destroying process. Dying civilisations are present in their final forms whilst new civilisations are emerging; cycles come and go and in the going overlap; the same is also found to be true in the emerging and disappearing of rays and races. Death, in the last analysis and from the standpoint of the average human being, is simply disappearance from the physical plane—the plane of appearances.

The form of destruction we are considering however, is more concerned with the destruction of quality than with forms, though the disappearance of these qualities produces the death of the outer form. The withdrawing life of a great expression of the hierarchical plan absorbs the qualities and returns with them, as endowments, later in time and space and manifests anew through the medium of more adequate forms of expression. The soul, however, kills the forms in the three worlds; it is the life aspect (in this higher and more extensive type of destruction) which destroys the innate quality and consequently the form of a civilisation, the type of an ideology and the character of a race or nation, preserving only the essentials but discarding the distortions.

This fourth word is closely related to the fourth initiation in which the causal body or soul vehicle on its own plane is destroyed—that beautiful, intangible, qualitative Identity which has motivated and implemented the man in the three worlds. Does this instance somewhat clarify the difficulty of this subject with which we are concerned? Ponder on this as an illustration of this form of destruction, and seek better understanding.

This higher form of destruction does not manifest under the activity or the non-activity of the Law of Attraction, as does the death which the soul brings about. It is definitely under the Law of Synthesis, a law of the monadic sphere of life, and one therefore most difficult for you to comprehend; it emanates from a point outside the five worlds of human and superhuman evolution, just as the destruction of form in the three worlds emanates from the soul functioning outside the three worlds of the lower, concrete mind, the astral world and the physical plane. This statement again may aid you in understanding.

If this is so, it will be apparent to you that only initiates who have taken the fifth initiation and higher initiations can wield effectively this particular form of death—for monadic potency only becomes available after the third initiation, and its first successful use is the destruction of the causal body of the initiate. It is the reward of Transfiguration.

In connection with the use by the initiate of what we might call pure will, it should be remembered that this pure will works into manifestation through one or other of the three aspects of the Spiritual Triad. This activity is determined by the major ray upon which the initiate finds himself, from the angle of his monadic ray. Every spiritual man is upon one or another of the three major rays, for the minor four rays of attribute are all eventually absorbed into the third Ray of Active Intelligence.

If the initiate is upon the first ray, and therefore working in the Department of the Manu, he will use and express the innate will aspect through the atmic nature or through the highest aspect of the Spiritual Triad, to which we give the inadequate name of "divine Will." Students are apt to forget that the Spiritual Triad, related as it is to the Monad in much the same way as the threefold personality is related to the soul, expresses the three major aspects of Shamballic energy, which three are all of them expressions of the will of the planetary Logos and His essential Purpose. If the initiate is on the second ray, and therefore is working in the Department of the Christ, he will use the will through the medium of buddhi, the second aspect of the Spiritual Triad.  If he is on the third ray and in the Department of the Mahachohan, the Lord of Civilisation, he will work through the higher mind, the lowest aspect of the Spiritual Triad. Forget not, however, that none of these aspects can be regarded as higher or lower, for all are equally divine.

Understanding of these ideas may come if, for instance, you realise that the expression of buddhi, or of the intuition, in the consciousness of the spiritual man will lead to the use of the will in working out the purposes of Shamballa in the field of religions, of education, and of salvaging or saving the life aspect in all forms in the three worlds, but it will have no relation to the individual and personal problems of the man himself. If the expression is that of the higher mind, the use of the will will be in connection with civilisations and cultures for which the third department is responsible, and there will be the carrying out of the will of God in the large and general plans. If it is the will as it expresses itself through the atmic aspect of the Triad, it will function in relation to races, nations, and the kingdoms in nature, and to great planetary arrangements at present unknown to man. The synthesis of this picture will be apparent if carefully studied.

At the same time it must be borne in mind that the destroying aspect of this pure will, expressing through the Monad, implements the purpose of Shamballa and is one of the major manifestations of the Love nature of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being; it is also the guarantee of our ultimate and inevitable attainment, perfection, illumination and divine consummation.

This destruction wrought by the initiate is preparatory to his responsiveness to the fifth word which he receives at the fifth initiation and to which we give the inadequate name: Resurrect.

Prior to considering that word, I would like to point out that these five words have a clear reference to each of the five initiations; they give the initiate the keynote to the work which he must carry forward between the various initiatory processes. The work indicated has nothing whatever to do with the training and the discipline to which he will subject his personality; they are related instead to the work which he has to render. This work concerns what I might call certain essential realities connected with the purpose of Shamballa and with his ability to react or respond to the will of the Monad.

As you know, this ability does not become an established fact and functioning realisation until after the third initiation; nevertheless, the preparatory sensitivity is slowly developing and paralleling the two other activities—Destroy and Resurrect—to which he is pledged:

1. The disciplining of his lower nature so that the unfolding initiate-consciousness may find no hindrances and obstacles.

2. Service to the Plan, under hierarchical impression.

3. The development of monadic sensitivity.

It might be of interest at this point if, in view of this third development—responsiveness to pure will— we considered these five words in relation to the five initiations with which you are all so theoretically familiar.

The word Know, in relation to the initiate-consciousness, concerns the certainty of the initiate, and his profound conviction of the fact of the Christ in the hearts it is at the same time coupled with a reaction which emanates from the sacrifice petals in the egoic lotus—those petals which are composed of the will quality of the Monad and relate the soul to the emanating Monad. The first faint tremor of the impact of monadic "destiny" (I know not how else to express this concept) makes itself felt, but is registered only by the soul of the initiate and on the level of soul consciousness; it is never registered by the man on the physical plane who is taking the first initiation; his brain cannot respond to this high vibration. Theoretically, and as a result of the teaching of the Ageless Wisdom, the spiritual man (in incarnation) has known that he is essentially the indwelling Christ, and the attainment of the Christ consciousness has been and will be his goal; the knowledge here referred to concerns something higher still—the Self-identification of the soul on its own plane and the Self-recognition which relates that Self to the enveloping whole, the Monad.

If I might word it symbolically, I would say that the soul, the Christ (after the first initiation), knows that the inevitable processes of Christ-expression on Earth have been started and that the attainment of "the full-grown man in Christ" cannot be arrested. The centre of interest which has hitherto been directed to bringing this about now shifts and the soul on its own plane (not in the reflection of its consciousness on Earth) becomes determined to "go to the Father" or to demonstrate the highest aspect of divinity, the will aspect.

There are in the Gospel story four recorded moments in the life of the Christ wherein this process of development within His consciousness, this monadic centralisation (I know not what other word to use, for we have not yet developed the terminology of the monad, the will aspect) begins to demonstrate and can be traced in a definitely unfolding process. In the past I have incidentally referred to these points, but I would like to gather all four of them together here for your illumination.

1. His statement to His parents in the Temple, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" I would have you note that:

1. He was twelve years old at the time, and therefore the work upon which He had been occupied as a soul was finished, for twelve is the number of completed labour. The symbolism of His twelve years is now replaced by that of the twelve Apostles.

2. He was in the Temple of Solomon, ever a symbol of the causal body of the soul, and He was therefore speaking on soul levels and not as the spiritual man on Earth.

3. He was serving as a member of the Hierarchy, for He was found by His parents teaching the priests, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

4. He spoke as an expression of the substance aspect (He spoke to His mother) and also as a soul (He spoke to His father), but He was controlled by neither; He now functioned as the monad, above and beyond yet inclusive of both.

2. His statement to His disciples, "I must go up to Jerusalem," after which we read that He steadfastly set His face to go there. This was an intimation that He had now a new objective. The only place of complete "peace" (the meaning of the word Jerusalem) is Shamballa; the Hierarchy is not a centre of peace in the true meaning of the term, which has no relation to emotion but to the cessation of the type of activity with which we are familiar in the world of manifestation; the Hierarchy is a very vortex of activity and of energies coming from Shamballa and from Humanity. From the standpoint of true esotericism, Shamballa is a place of "serene determination and of poised, quiescent will" as the Old Commentary expresses it.

3. The exclamation of the Christ, "Father, not my will, but Thine be done," indicated His monadic and realised "destiny." The meaning of these words is not as is so oft stated by Christian theologians and thinkers, a statement of acceptance of pain and of an unpleasant future. It is an exclamation evoked by the realisation of monadic awareness and the focussing of the life aspect within the Whole.

The soul, in the preceding statement, is renounced, and the monad, as a point of centralisation, is definitely and finally recognised. Students would do well to bear in mind that the Christ never underwent the Crucifixion subsequent to this episode, but that it was the Master Jesus Who was crucified. The Crucifixion lay behind Him in the experience of the Christ. The episode of renunciation was a high point in the life of the World Saviour, but was no part of the experience of the Master Jesus.

4. The final words of the Christ to His apostles, gathered together in the upper chamber (in the Hierarchy, symbolically) were, "Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the age," or cycle. Here He was speaking as Head of the Hierarchy, which constitutes His Ashram, and also speaking as the Monad and expressing His divine Will to pervade or inform the world continuously and endlessly with His overshadowing consciousness; He expressed universality and the ceaseless continuity and contact which is the characteristic of monadic life—of life itself. It was also a tremendous affirmation, sent forth on the energy of the will, and making all things new and all things possible.

If you will carefully study these four statements you will see what is the knowledge referred to in this command given in Rule XIV to the initiate at the first initiation, the command to Know. It is the order to reorient the soul to the monad and not an order to reorient the personality to the soul, as is so oft believed.

The word Express, in its deepest meaning and when given at the second initiation, does not mean the necessity to express the nature of the soul. It means (behind all other possible meanings) the command to express the will nature of the monad and to "feel after" and embody the Purpose which lies behind the Plan, as a result of the developed sensitivity. Obedience to the Plan brings revelation of the hidden Purpose, and this is a phrasing of the great objective which impulses the Hierarchy itself. As the initiate learns cooperation with the Plan and demonstrates this in his life of service, then within himself and paralleling this activity to which he is dedicated as a personality and soul, there is also an awakening realisation of the Father aspect, of the nature of the will, of the existence and factual nature of Shamballa and of the universality and the livingness of whatever is meant by the word "Being." He knows and is beginning to express that pure Being as pure will in activity.

When the third initiation is taken the initiate becomes aware, not only of the significance of the command to Know and of his innate ability to Express the will nature of the monad in carrying out the Purpose of Shamballa, but that (through his fused personality-soul) he is now in a position to "make revelation" to the Hierarchy that he is en rapport with the monadic source from which he originally came. He can now obey the command to Reveal, because the Transfiguration is consummated. He is not now revealing the soul only, but all the three aspects now meet in him and he can reveal the life aspect as will and not only the soul aspect as love or the matter aspect as intelligence.

This is, as you know the first major initiation from the angle of the greater Lodge on Sirius, because it is the first initiation in which all the three aspects meet in the initiate. The first two initiations—oft regarded by humanity as major initiations—are in reality minor initiations from the Sirian point of view, because the relation of the man "under discipline and in training" is only a tendency; there is only a developing recognition of the Father and a slowly growing response to the monad, plus an unfolding sensitivity to the impact of the will aspect. But in the third initiation these developments are sufficiently present to merit the phrase, "revelation of the glory," and the Transfiguration initiation takes place.

At the fourth initiation the destroying aspect of the will can begin to make its presence felt; the soul body, the causal body, the Temple of the Lord, is destroyed by an act of the will and because even the soul is recognised as a limitation by that which is neither the body nor the soul, but that which stands greater than either. The awareness of the perfected man is now focussed in that of the monad. The road to Jerusalem has been trodden. This is a symbolical way of saying that the antahkarana has been constructed and the Way to the Higher Evolution—which confronts the higher initiates—has now opened up.

The three aspects of the will, as focussed in the Spiritual Triad, are now in full expressions the initiate is animated by Purpose, but faces still greater evolutionary developments; of these I do not need to speak, as they concern divine aspects as yet unknown and unregistered by man. The reason for this complete ignorance is that the vehicles of any man below the third initiation contain too much "impure matter" to record the impact of these divine qualities. Only the "created body" (the mayavirupa) of an initiate of the fourth initiation can begin to register these divine impacts; it is therefore waste of our time to consider even the possibility of their existence. Even I, a Master, and therefore an initiate of a relatively high degree, am only faintly sensing them, and that because I am learning to obey the fifth word which we will briefly, very briefly, now consider.

5. Resurrect

One of the greatest of all distortions, and one of the most misleading of the theological teachings, has been the interpretation put upon the word "resurrection" in the Christian approach. This resurrection has been applied in many cases to the resurrection of the body; it is also applied to the fact (the selfishly motivated wish) of immortality; it is applied also to the physical resurrection of the Christ after he supposedly died upon the Cross. Resurrection teaches essentially the "lifting up" of matter into heaven; it does not teach the eternal persistence of the physical body of a man, as many Fundamentalists today suppose, looking for the reappearance of the discarded physical body; it does teach the "livingness of Life" and the state of "unalterable Being." This unalterable Being constitutes the nature of the Monad, and it is to this condition of awareness that Christ attained when He functioned as a World Saviour and thereby guaranteed, by the force of His achievement as a personality-soul, the same point of attainment for us, for we are equally and essentially sons of the Father or expressions of the Monad, the One. It does not, however, signify the resurrection of some personality in a particular vehicle used in a particular incarnation.

The whole concept of resurrection is the new and most important revelation which is coming to humanity, and which will lay the basis for the new world religion.

In the immediate past, the keynote of the Christian religion has been death, symbolised for us in the death of the Christ, and much distorted for us by St. Paul in his effort to blend the new religion which Christ gave us with the old blood religion of the Jews. In the coming cycle, this distorted teaching on death will assume its rightful place and be known as the disciplining urge to relinquishment and to the ending by death of the hold by matter over the soul; the great goal of all religious teaching will be the resurrection of the spirit in man, and eventually in all forms of life, from the lowest point in evolution to the highest monadic experience. The emphasis in the future will be upon the "livingness of the Christ nature"—the proof of which will be the Risen Christ—and upon the use of the will invoking this "living display." The glory and the radiance of the Transfiguration initiation will eventually be relegated to its destined place, and what is meant by the "display of life" will dimly be sensed in its unimaginable beauty.

The line or the path or the Way of Resurrection is the "Radiant Way" to which we have given the cumbersome name of the Antahkarana; this Way leads straight and directly from one great planetary centre to another—from Humanity to the Hierarchy and from the Hierarchy to Shamballa. This is the Way of Resurrection. It is a Way which is composed of the light of intelligent substance, of the radiant attractive substance of love, and the karmic way which is infused by the essence of inflexible will. Forget not that karma is essentially the conditioned will of the planetary Logos as He orders all things toward the ultimate goal of life itself through the process of livingness, of loving understanding, and of intelligent activity.

Therefore, the order to resurrect, as understood by the initiate, concerns solely the application of the will nature and the aspect of Shamballa to the impulsing of hierarchical attraction and activity. It does not concern the individual life of the upward-moving aspirant or disciple, no matter what his degree, except incidentally and because major divine macrocosmic impulses must have lesser microcosmic effects. All these stupendous words with which we have been dealing relate to the cooperation of the initiate with the Will of Shamballa, and therefore, my brothers, are only dim hints to you.

PART TWO

THE RAYS AND THE INITIATIONS

38. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

We now come to the final part of A Treatise on the Seven Rays and I have in mind three things which it appears to me to be necessary to do; these three will make this Treatise not only the textbook of the new psychology but also a more vital factor in the human consciousness, because the fact of initiation will be emphasised.

These three are:

1. I propose to deal with the theme of Initiation in order to prepare the world of men for the restoration of the Mysteries.

2. I will give some definite teaching on the Centres from the planetary angle and also from the angle of the individual aspirant.

3. I will endeavour to relate the seven Ray energies to the five and the seven Initiations and to the three and the seven centres in a new and more arresting manner.

This is a large order and one not easy to fulfill because so much has already been given out anent initiation; the subject is dangerously familiar. By that I mean that certain preconceived ideas are already present in men's minds and many of these are not factual in nature and need to be discarded or, at the best, reinterpreted. I have myself dealt in a broad and general way with the subject of initiation in one of my earliest books: Initiation, Human and Solar; also, scattered through all my writings over the years is a mass of information which needs collating and bringing together as a basis for the instruction of disciples in training for an initiation.

In Discipleship in the New Age, I gave out much more upon this subject and also information of a deeply esoteric nature anent the Ashrams of the Masters. The second volume of the book also contains much that is new and should serve to bring this whole subject much closer to public understanding. In the instructions now to be given, however, I shall endeavour to cover the ground not already considered, and look at the subject of initiation from the angle of the seven rays, from the effect upon the centres, planetary and individual, and from the point of view of the esoteric training of the accepted aspirant or disciple. (These instructions were begun in March 1946 and completed in March 1949.)

This final Volume of A Treatise on the Seven Rays will eventually change the attitude of men's minds towards the Mysteries and towards the activity of spiritual transference, which is one of the names given by the Masters to the basic mystery of initiation. In due time our educational centres, particularly those concerned with adult education, will take into calculation, normally and customarily, the fact of future initiation where their students are concerned, and will study their graduates from this angle in order to give advice or recommendation. In these institutions the elements of true esotericism will be taught, though they will not be then regarded as esoteric.

It will be apparent to you that this long Treatise is in the nature of a preparatory thesis covering a vast field or area of information. The first two volumes dealt with the sevenfold nature of man and with the influence of the seven basic energies or rays upon his unfoldment and his history, and (in a briefer manner) upon the world in which he lives and upon the environment which aids and conditions him. In the third volume we took into consideration the influences of the constellations and planets upon the man and upon our planet, the Earth, and gave much time to the consideration of esoteric astrology; the rays, the signs, the constellations and the planets are all of them closely interrelated and the human being is the recipient of the energies and forces which they emanate or distribute. This makes the man what he essentially is at any one time whilst in incarnation.

We next considered the subject of healing because of the necessity of understanding the limitations— psychological and physical—which restrict man's free expression of divinity. We dealt with a major condition which has to be faced and comprehended if humanity is ever to step off the ordinary path of evolution on to the path of discipleship and of initiation. Man has to become aware of the ray effects, of the place the centres play in his advance and unfoldment, and of the play of energies and forces which produce the difficulties and the diseases, and can at the same time cure them and bring about the liberation of the man.

From the consideration of limitations we passed on to an entirely new theme and an entirely new concept as regards man's education when he has reached a relatively very advanced stage of unfoldment. I gave you the new teaching anent the antahkarana or the mode and method whereby the initiate could relate in one great fusion or at-one-ment not only the soul and the personality, but monad, soul, and personality. This teaching has carried all that has hitherto been given, down the ages, another step further on and indicated the next stage of development ahead of the disciple. The time has come, as the Hierarchy had foreseen, for further light upon the endless Way.

Teaching anent the five initiations which confront all aspirants has long been given and has become public property; it has meant very little for most people and nothing at all to the mass of men; it has been regarded by the intelligentsia as vague and visionary nonsense; some few have admitted that these initiations may be possible, and others say that they are simply symbolic modes of indicating some final achievement which mankind faces; still others have accepted this teaching and have come to regard the initiations as goals and have then taken the necessary steps to prove the veridical nature of their beliefs; they have proved it, have become initiate, and have attained the status of Master of the Wisdom and taken their place within the Hierarchy. There is, therefore, a certain familiarity about these goals, the service they could entail and the consummation of the hierarchical possibilities; this itself indicates that the time had come when certain faint indications of that which lies behind the Mysteries and of that which is to be seen ahead of those who have achieved initiation should be somewhat clarified; I therefore started to impart three phases of information:

1. I gave out teaching which indicated the mode of bridging the gap between the lower three worlds and the world of the Spiritual Triad. In doing this, it became apparent that there were three groupings or levels of consciousness which had to be recognised:

1. The three worlds of human evolution.

1. The mental plane
2. The astral plane
3. The physical plane

2. The three levels of the mental plane.

1. The level of the concretising mind, the lower mind.
2. The level on which the soul is to be found.
3. The level of the abstract or higher mind.

3. The three worlds of superhuman evolution, the levels of the Spiritual Triad: atma-buddhi-manas.

Between the higher three and the lower three and embracing the mental plane was a definite gap, a break in the continuity of conscious contact or an area where there was no channelling for the inpouring of higher energies. Here the teaching of the conscious building of the antahkarana was required; thus the gap between the mental unit and the manasic permanent atom, between the personality (indwelt by the soul) and the Spiritual Triad could be bridged by the aspirant himself.

2. I found it necessary also to indicate the nature of the Way of the Higher Evolution which had been hinted at but about which absolutely no information had been given. It is the Way which opens out before the Master of the Wisdom, leading to states of identification and levels of awareness which lie outside our planetary sphere altogether. The following of this Way enables the Master to "abstract" Himself from the seven planes of our planetary life and divest Himself of all we understand as material existence. Forget not that our seven planes are only the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane.

3. I therefore opened up the subject of the possibility of the higher initiations which confront the

        Members of the Hierarchy. In this connection it is useful to remember that:

1. The Council Chamber at Shamballa provides a goal for the Members of the Hierarchy, but not an abiding place.

2. The seven Paths which stretch out before a Master are entered by the treading of the Way of the Higher Evolution.

3. The so-called third initiation, the Transfiguration, is only the first major initiation, from the standpoint of the Hierarchy; it marks the moment in time and space when the initiate sees truly and for the first time the door which opens on to this higher Way. Then—if he chooses the Path that the Christ chose (and there is no reason that he should)—he will "set his face to go up to Jerusalem."

These are some of the things which I have hinted at in past writings; they have been touched upon, vaguely and mysteriously, by past teachers and somewhat more explicitly by myself; I propose to be a little more definite in this new section.

Teaching, if true, must be in line with the past and must provide scope for endeavour in the present and must also hold out further enlightenment for those who have succeeded or are succeeding in attaining the indicated goals. There must be a spiritual future indicated. It is that which is required now, for many are attaining the goals proposed by the Hierarchy, and others are working towards them. The taking of initiation is now often to be seen and is far more frequent today than at any other time in the history of the race; for those who have thus succeeded, the next step forward and the new spiritual enticement must be clearly disclosed. Evolution is not a static thing; death cannot be the reward of living effort. To be static, to have attained all that can be attained, and to be at a complete standstill would be utter death and, my brothers, there is no death. There is only progress from glory to glory, a moving forward from point to point on the divine Way, and from revelation to revelation towards those points and revelations which are perhaps part of the Goal of God Himself.

What the goals are upon the Higher Way is as yet utterly unknown to you; what divine qualities and objectives may be revealed to the Master and to the Christ as They tread the Way which leads Them off the cosmic physical plane altogether, you cannot know or sense, and if you could, you would not comprehend the meaning. "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard" the things which God will reveal to those who tread the way to the innermost centre, to those who love. This ancient writing can be paraphrased as follows: It is impossible to realise the wonder of the future which the planetary Logos will unfold before those who have unfolded the second divine aspect, Love, and who are therefore full Members of the Hierarchy, the centre where the energy of Love is anchored.

It is interesting to realise that the unfoldment of the love nature is that which opens the door which leads to the Way of the Higher Evolution and that nothing else will open it. This Way leads the Master off the cosmic physical plane on to the cosmic astral plane or to a level of cosmic awareness whereon is generated that cosmic impulse which we call Love.

It will be obvious to you that as this Treatise is not written to instruct Members of the Hierarchy, but only for aspirants and disciples and initiates below the grade of the third initiation, much that I will say will be somewhat "blind" or veiled in symbol; much that I could say (if words existed of an adequate nature) will not be said. Those that have eyes to see and ears to hear will read between the lines and correctly interpret my symbols, hints and references.  To many what I will say will be as meaningless as A Treatise on Cosmic Fire is to the average reader and as the entire theme of initiation is to the ignorant and the undeveloped man. Much, however, should be of practical service to the struggling disciple, and I want in these concluding pages to fire his zeal, deepen his understanding, stimulate his capacity to love, and enlighten his mind. Such is what I seek to do. On his part, let him approach this subject with deep humility, with a meditative and reflective attitude, and with a refusal to materialise the presented concepts, as is so easy a thing to do. Let him refuse to step down the teaching to the level of his physical consciousness. In these words I have conveyed a basic hint.

Love and light are the great revealers, and if the student truly seeks to understand and profit by what I am endeavouring to teach, let him love all men more deeply and let him see to it that his light shines forth in a dark place, for "in that light shall he see Light." It is the lesser light within that reveals the greater light; when the light of the soul combines with the light of the lower man, then that fused and blended light will enable the aspirant to see the Door which opens upon the Way of the Higher Evolution.

I have made two affirmations during the past years anent the Hierarchy. One was that as a result of the cleansing of the Earth through the medium of the world war (1914-1945) and through the suffering to which humanity has been subjected (with a consequent purifying effect which will demonstrate later), it will be possible for the Hierarchy to externalise itself and function openly upon the physical plane. This will indicate a return to the situation which existed in Atlantean days when (using the Biblical symbolism) God Himself walked among men—divinity was present in physical form because the Members of the Hierarchy were guiding and directing the affairs of humanity as far as innate freewill permitted. On a higher turn of the spiral, this again will happen. The Masters will walk openly among men. Secondly, the Hierarchy will then restore the ancient Mysteries, the ancient landmarks so earnestly preserved by the Masonic tradition and which have been securely embalmed in the Masonic ritual, awaiting the day of resurrection.

These ancient Mysteries were originally given to humanity by the Hierarchy, and were—in their turn— received by the Hierarchy from the Great White Lodge on Sirius. They contain the clue to the evolutionary process, hidden in numbers and in words; they veil the secret of man's origin and destiny, picturing for him in rite and ritual the long, long path which he must tread. They provide also, when rightly interpreted and correctly presented, the teaching which humanity needs in order to progress from darkness to Light, from the unreal to the Real and from death to Immortality. Any true Mason who understands, even if only to a slight degree, the implications of that in which he participates will recognise this most ancient of Oriental prayers, giving the key to the three degrees of the Blue Lodge. I mention here the Masonic purpose because it is closely related to the restoration of the Mysteries and has held the clue—down the ages—to that long-awaited restoration, to the platform upon which the restored teaching can be based, and the structure which can express, in powerful ritual and in organised detailed rites, the history of man's moving forward upon the Path of Return.

The Mysteries will be restored in other ways also, for they contain much besides that which the Masonic rites can reveal or that religious rituals and ceremonies can disclose; they contain within their teaching and formulas the key to the science which will unlock the mystery of electricity—that mystery of which H.P.B. spoke; though much progress has already been made by science along this line, it is as yet only embryonic in nature, and only when the Hierarchy is present visibly on earth, and the Mysteries of which the Masters are the Custodians are given openly to man, will the true secret and nature of electrical phenomena be revealed.

The Mysteries are, in reality, the true source of revelation, and it can be only when the mind and the will-to-good are closely blended and conditioning human behaviour that the extent of the coming revelation will be grasped, for only then can humanity be trusted with these secrets. They concern those capacities which enable the Members of the Hierarchy to work consciously with the energies of the planet and of the solar system and to control forces within the planet; they will put the ordinary psychic powers (today so stupidly approached and so little understood) in their rightful place and guide man towards their helpful usage.

The Mysteries will restore colour and music as they essentially are to the world and do it in such a manner that the creative art of today will be to this new creative art what a child's building of wooden blocks is to a great cathedral such as Durham or Milan. The Mysteries, when restored, will make real—in a sense incomprehensible to you at present—the nature of religion, the purpose of science and the goal of education. These are not what you think today.

The ground is being prepared at this time for this great restoration. The Churches and Masonry are today before the judgment seat of humanity's critical mind and the word has gone forth from that mass mind that both of them failed in their divinely assigned tasks. It is realised everywhere that new life must be poured in and great changes wrought in the awareness and in the training of those who work through and in these two media of truth. Those changes have not yet been carried out, for it will take a new vision and a new approach to life experience, and this only the coming generation is capable of giving; they and they alone can bring about the needed alterations and the revitalisation, but it can and will be done:

"That which is a mystery shall no longer be so, and that which has been veiled will now be revealed: that which has been withdrawn will emerge into the light, and all men shall see and together they shall rejoice. That time will come when desolation has wrought its beneficent work, when all things have been destroyed, and men, through suffering, have sought to be impressed by that which they had discarded in vain pursuit of that which was near at hand and easy of attainment. Possessed, it proved to be an agency of death—yet men sought life, not death."

So runs the Old Commentary when referring to the present cycle through which mankind is passing. The tests for the first initiation, as far as humanity (the world disciple) is concerned, are well-nigh over and the hour of the birth of the Christ as an expression of the fourth kingdom in nature and the consummation of the work of the Fourth Creative Hierarchy is at hand. This there is no gainsaying; the birth hour may be long and the form may be "in labour" for much time, but the Christ will be born and the nature of the Christ and His consciousness will permeate and colour all human affairs. It is this condition—so imminent and so desirable and long foretold and anticipated—which will make possible the return of the Hierarchy and the restoration of the Mysteries.

These occurrences are not only dependent upon the fitness of humanity to provide the right setting and upon the inevitability of evolutionary development itself, but the reappearance of the Hierarchy and that which its Members will accomplish is related also (and primarily) to the interior life and the spiritual impulses within the Hierarchy itself and unrelated to mankind altogether. The Hierarchy pursues its own line of spiritual unfoldment as a paralleling activity to its services on Earth in connection with planetary evolution. Men are so apt to regard their own lives and destiny and the unfoldment of the human consciousness as the factor of only and paramount importance upon Earth and in the evolutionary processes of the planet. These conditions are of importance, but they are not the only factors of importance, nor does humanity stand alone and isolated.

Humanity occupies a midway point between the subhuman and the superhuman kingdoms, and each of these groups of evolving lives has its own important destiny—important to all contained within the group ring-pass-not. They have their own chosen and differing modes, methods and ways of achievement. Just as individual man has to learn the art or science of relationship to other men and to his environment, so humanity as a whole has to learn its relationship to that which lies above and beyond mankind and with that which is below and left behind. This involves a sense of proportion which can be attained only by the mind principle in man and by those who are beginning to be mentally polarised. This sense of proportion will reveal to men their place upon the ladder of evolution and lead them to the recognition of the peculiar destiny and unique goals of other kingdoms in nature, including the fifth kingdom, the Kingdom of God, the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet.

The Hierarchy is itself also at a point of spiritual crisis. Its initiates stand before the Door which leads to the Way of the Higher evolution and the entire personnel of the Hierarchy waits to make a united move forward, paralleling—on its own level—the move forward which humanity is also destined to make.

But, my brothers, here is the point of interest. Under the great law of synthetic expression (called by us the Law of Synthesis, the law governing the first divine aspect) the Hierarchy must move forward in such a manner that the effort must encompass the physical plane as well as the higher planes. The activity engineered must cover the three worlds of human evolution as well as the three worlds of the Spiritual Triad. Forget not the overlapping of these two worlds which takes place upon the mental plane and warrants the well-known phrase "the five worlds of superhuman evolution."

Hence, therefore, the necessity for the externalisation of the Hierarchy and the demonstration of Their united ability to work from the physical plane up to the highest, in order to move unitedly through this Door on to the Way. Speaking symbolically, this externalisation is for the Members of the Hierarchy an act of sacrificial service, but it is also a symbolic gesture. The Hierarchy incarnates on Earth again, and for the first time since its last incarnation in Atlantean days. It is, however, a group incarnation and not the incarnation of individual Members. This is probably a subtle point too difficult for you to grasp.

The externalisation of the Hierarchy, therefore, and the restoration of the Mysteries, are not something done for humanity or simply carried out because men have earned a closer contact, have the right to some reward or are now so spiritual that the Hierarchy can have a good and useful time helping them.

The picture is entirely different. What looms with such importance in the consciousness of men is, in reality, quite secondary in relation to the hierarchical crisis which we are considering. This reappearance upon the physical plane and the consequent life of service (involving factors of profound significance to men) are an expression of the inherent spiritual impulse which is impelling hierarchical action in two directions but involving one unified movement, embracing all the five planes of superhuman evolution and necessitating a group recapitulation of incarnated process.

The Hierarchy has its own life and its own goals and objectives, its own evolutionary rhythm and its own spiritual expansions; these are not the same as those of the human kingdom. These goals and rhythms will become more familiar to thinking men as the Hierarchy approaches closer to the physical plane.

This inclusive and planned activity of the Hierarchy is related to spiritual incentives which have their roots in Shamballa. There the life aspect is being almost violently stimulated through the action of the Lords of Liberation Who have swept into planetary activity because of the use of the second Stanza of the great Invocation—which was used potently by Members of the Hierarchy. Again, it was not used by Them solely on behalf of humanity or for the liberation of mankind; it had hierarchical implications also and was in part a demand by the Hierarchy for permission to move along the Way. The releasing of the "saving force" because the hour of service had arrived, permitted (at the same time) the inflow of an aspect of energy which never reached humanity at all and was not intended for strictly human use, but which was retained by the Hierarchy for the vitalising into renewed livingness of the seven major Ashrams, thus enabling the entire Ashram of the Christ to lift itself on to a higher spiritual level and closer to the door which leads to Life.

These statements veil deep hierarchical mysteries and are not in any way related to the Mysteries which will concern humanity when the Hierarchy is externalised. These mysteries will not be revealed to men. Only a general statement of the effects upon the Hierarchy of certain mysterious activities is permissible. They serve to show the steady pulsation of the evolutionary rhythm which permeates every atom, form, group and centre upon our planet, producing effects upon the lowest forms of existence and on and up to the very highest; there is naught anywhere but progress and a steady moving forward into clearer light and greater livingness.

In these instructions I am dealing with the entire theme of initiation from its broad and general angle and from the angle of definition; it is not my intention, therefore, to duplicate here what is given in Volume II of Discipleship in the New Age. Our approach will be somewhat different in this final section of our Treatise; we will confine ourselves to the effect of the rays upon the initiate and to the relation existing between the ray energies and various initiations which I have already outlined. In this section also I do not intend to deal with the scientific awakening of the centres or with the technicalities of bringing them into the desired balance and activity. I have already given what is necessary in my various books, where a very great deal of information is given and will be found scattered through all of them. By means of this diffusion and scattering, the teaching is protected and cannot constitute a danger to the general public.  

Students in the immediate future will have to search out the teaching in all the many volumes and hunt most carefully for the details of the science of the centres and for information anent their nature and processes. The whole subject of the centres is dangerous if misunderstood; the centres constitute a menace when prematurely awakened or unduly energised, and this entire subject can prove most dangerous to the curiosity-impelled man and to the ignorant experimenter.  The time is not yet ripe for the presentation of this subject in a fully coordinated manner; students are warned against publishing a clear correlated thesis on the subject as a result of their researches in my books. Nevertheless, the true aspirant must be given the needed information.

The Mysteries are revealed not primarily by the reception of information anent them and their processes, but by the action of certain processes, carried out within the etheric body of the disciple; these enable him to know that which is hidden; they put him in possession of a mechanism of revelation and make him aware of certain radiatory and magnetic powers or energies within himself which constitute channels of activity and modes whereby he may acquire that which it is the privilege of the initiate to own and to use.

The disciple upon the Probationary Path starts off on his quest for the door of initiation, and for that which he will contact after passing through that door, with a definite equipment and created mechanism. This has been acquired, and facility in its use has been attained, through many cycles of incarnation. An incarnation is a definitely determined period (from the angle of the soul) wherein Experiment, Experience and Expression are the keynotes in each incarnation. Each successive incarnation continues the experiment, deepens the experience and relates the expression more closely to the latent unfolding divinity.

The same three words—in greatly enhanced interpretation and with the emphasis upon a much fuller opportunity—can be used to describe the progress of the initiate upon the final stages of the Path; with this we shall be partly engaged in this section. I would ask you, whilst reading and pondering upon all that I say, to have these three words in mind. Every initiation is approached by the disciple or initiate in a spirit of divine experimentation, but with a scientific aspect, because an initiation is a culminating moment of achievement, and success is a graded series of experiments with energy.

Having garnered the fruit of the experiment above indicated, there follows a certain period wherein experience in the use of the related potencies tales place. This occupies the interlude between one initiation and another. This may cover a period of many lives or prove relatively short. The results of the experiment of initiation and of experience with the then endowed energies emerge as the ability of the initiate to express divinity more fully than heretofore; this means that he increasingly can function as a divine creator in relation to the hierarchical Plan, as the manipulator of the attractive energies of love, and as one who determines under the impelling will of Shamballa—the phase or aspect of the divine purpose with which he must himself be occupied in relation to the manifestation of the planetary Logos. You will note that I do not say in relation to humanity. The initiate works in many fields of divine creativity of which the field of mankind is only one.

Secondly, I would have you consider with me the various aspects of our sectional theme from the angle of the seven rays. By this I mean that disciples upon the different rays will all have the same goal, make the same experiments, go through the same experience and arrive equally at divine expression. However, their qualities and their modes of approach, their reactions and their distinctive natures will differ according to their ray type; this constitutes a most interesting and little known phase of our study of initiation. Initiation has been a blanket happening, and no note has been made of the ray implications. This I propose to remedy.

Each of the seven initiations, for instance, is an exemplification or a revealer of one of the seven ray qualities or tendencies; it is governed and conditioned always by a certain ray, and this is one of the factors which disciples have to learn and grasp whilst preparing for an initiation, because it involves success in handling and manipulating certain types of divine energy. Each of the initiations brings one or other of the seven centres into full functioning activity, not from the angle of awakening or of stimulation, but from the angle of a "wheel turning upon itself." This is an Old Testament expression and is wholly inadequate, but I can find none other to substitute. The wording is totally blind and inadequate and will prove to you somewhat meaningless, except to the initiate who has experienced that turning.

As esoteric astrologers know well, there comes a life cycle wherein the disciple reverses himself upon the Wheel of Life (the zodiacal wheel) and from going clockwise around the zodiac, he now begins to go anti-clockwise; he learns that the substance aspect of his nature may still be conditioned by the forces flowing through them sequentially and serially, and according to his horoscope and according to the exoteric mode of the zodiacal revolution; at the same time, the disciple is receiving energy currents from the reversed wheel whereon he, as a soul, finds himself. He is consequently the recipient of two currents of energy, going in reverse directions; hence the increased conflict in his life and circumstances; these constitute the reason for the tests of initiation.

This, on a tiny scale, is true of the centres in the etheric body of the disciple; they too evidence the same dual activity, once the Path of Discipleship is trodden and the Path of Initiation is entered. The zodiacal wheel is itself essentially a cosmic centre; it is a twelve-petalled lotus, but it is a twelve-petalled lotus within the thousand-petalled lotus of an unknown cosmic Entity, the One referred to in my earlier books as the ONE ABOUT WHOM NAUGHT MAY BE SAID.

The multiplicity of zodiacal influences have eventually a dual effect: one upon Shamballa (the planetary head centre) and the other upon the Hierarchy (the planetary heart centre); the effect is also felt in the head centre and the heart centre of every initiate. This final dual activity is registered by the initiate of the highest degrees when he undergoes the eighth and ninth initiations; the other seven initiations are governed by the seven rays.

Initiation 1. Birth

Sacral centre        7th ray        Physical plane         Beginnings        Relationship                Sex Magic

Initiation 2. Baptism

Solar Plexus        6th ray          Astral plane         Dedication        Glamour                Devotion

Initiation 3. Transfiguration

Ajna centre         5th ray            Mental plane         Integration        Direction                Science

Initiation 4. Renunciation

Heart centre        4th ray            Buddhic plane         Crucifixion        Sacrifice                Harmony

Initiation 5. Revelation

Base of spine       1st ray            Atmic plane         Emergence        Will                        Purpose

Initiation 6. Decision

Throat centre          3rd ray               Monadic plane         Fixation        Intelligent                 Creativity

                                                                activity

Initiation 7. Resurrection

Head centre         2nd ray               Logoic plane         Eternal Pilgrim    Love-Wisdom         Attraction

Initiation 8. Transition

Hierarchy        Four minor rays     Planetary Choice                 Consciousness         Sensitivity

Initiation 9. Refusal

Shamballa       Three major rays    Seven Higher Paths        Being                        Existence

It will not be possible for you to comprehend the synthesis which governs the four final initiations, and for these experiences we have as yet no adequate language. All that is possible is to indicate certain spiritual trends and tendencies and—as this section is written primarily for those who have taken or who are preparing to take one or other of the initiations—I can only hope that some meaning will be conveyed to those persons who are ready.  A careful study of the above tabulation should give you a somewhat different idea anent the whole subject of initiation.

The concept which has to supersede the one at present extant is that of group initiation, and not that of the initiation of an individual aspirant. In the past, and in order to get the idea of initiation into the minds of the people, the Hierarchy chose the mode (now obsolete) of holding out the prospect of initiation before the earnest disciple; upon this they placed an early emphasis of its peculiarity, its rewarding nature, its ritual and ceremonies, and its place in the scale of evolution. Since the fact of initiation had been grasped by many and achieved by some, it has become possible today to reveal what has always been implied, that initiation is a group event. If clear thinking had taken the place of a selfish individual aspiration, the fact of group initiation would have been obvious and for the following reasons, inherent and implied in the whole situation:

1. The soul—in its own nature—is group conscious and has no individual ambitions or individual interests, and is not at all interested in the aims of its personality. It is the soul which is the initiate. Initiation is a process whereby the spiritual man within the personality becomes aware of himself as the soul, with soul powers, soul relationships, and soul purpose. The moment a man realises this, even in a small measure, it is the group of which he is conscious.

2. Only the man whose sense of identity is beginning to expand and become inclusive can "take initiation" (as it is erroneously termed). If initiation were a purely personal achievement, it would throw the man back into the separative consciousness, out of which he is endeavouring to escape. This would not be spiritual progression. Every step upon the Path of Initiation increases group recognition. Initiation is essentially an expanding series of inclusive recognitions.

3. Initiation admits the aspirant into membership in the Hierarchy. This involves, speaking esoterically, the relinquishing of all separative personality reactions in a series of progressive renunciations; these culminate in the fourth initiation, and are again mysteriously emphasised at the ninth initiation.

It dawns on the initiate, as he proceeds from one initiation to another, that each time he moves forward on the path or penetrates into the heart of the Mysteries in company with those who are as he is, who share with him the same point in evolution, and who are working with him towards the same goal, that he is not alone; that it is a joint effort that is being made. This is in fact the keynote of an Ashram, conditioning its formation. It is composed of disciples and initiates at various stages of initiate-unfoldment who have arrived at their point of ashramic consciousness together, and who will proceed together until they arrive at that complete liberation which comes when the cosmic physical plane drops below the threshold of consciousness or of sensitive awareness and no longer holds any point of interest for the initiate.

This is one of the new factors in hierarchical methods and techniques which I have had the responsibility of bringing to public attention, and so correcting the erroneous teaching of those trained under orthodox (so called) schools of occultism. The Master K.H., in one of the few (the very few) paragraphs in The Mahatma Letters which are genuine and not simply the work of H.P.B., gave a hint to aspirants of that time when He said that so many of them were so "spiritually selfish." This spiritual selfishness has led the average esoteric student to appropriate initiation and to make it personal and individual. Yet one of the prime prerequisites for initiation is a clear and concise recognition of one's own group, not through a process of wishful thinking, but through factual cooperation and work upon the physical plane. I said group, my brother, and not organisation, for they are two very different things.

Have carefully in mind, therefore, the fact of group initiation, and forego the process of considered thought anent your preparation for initiation. Some groups are being prepared for initiation in which the following factors control—as far as the individual is concerned:

1. A group of men and women whose souls are on some one ray are gathered together subjectively by a Master on the same ray, for group training.

2. Opportunity is given to such people to contact on the physical plane some of those who are thus subjectively linked, and thus mutually convey a sense of group solidarity. The subjective relationship is assured by an objective contact. Recognition is therefore a preliminary test of initiation, and this should be remembered.

3. Such people thus being trained and related are, from the angle of the initiation to be taken, at the same point in evolution. They are taking the same initiation and are being subjected to the same tests and difficulties. These tests and difficulties are due to the fact of the personality ray which may be (and usually is) quite different to the soul ray. It is the personality ray which works to prevent contact, to mislead in recognition, to retard progress and to misinterpret information. As long as a disciple in training is focussed in his personality, group initiation will not be possible for him, his recognition of co-aspirants will be fleeting and rapidly disturbed by the critical lower mind, and a wall of thoughtforms, created by the personality, anent the group members, will be thrown up and prevent a united moving forward through the Door of Initiation.

4. Group initiation cannot be achieved by a group in training until the members, as a group, have developed their particular "spiritual enterprise." It is the law of the spirit that the disciple must appear before the Initiator empty-handed, but that in group formation the group members unitedly contribute something to the enrichment of the Ashram. This may take the form of some considered project in line with the Plan, whereby they testify to their comprehension of that Plan and demonstrate to the initiate-company in which they find themselves, and those senior disciples to whose contact they are to be admitted, that they have already proven their fitness for acceptance and have proven it along the line of service. It has to be a group enterprise, a group service and a group contribution. The specific contribution of the individual does not appear.

This thought of group initiation must be remembered, for it will colour all that I shall seek to convey to your minds and will hasten the day of your own acceptance. No one is admitted (through the processes of initiation) into the Ashram of the Christ (the Hierarchy) until such time as he is beginning to think and live in terms of group relationships and group activities. Some well-meaning aspirants interpret the group idea as the instruction to them that they should make an effort to form groups—their own group or groups. This is not the idea as it is presented in the Aquarian Age, so close today; it was the mode of approach during the Piscean Age, now passed.

Today, the entire approach is totally different. No man today is expected to stand at the centre of his little world and work to become a focal point for a group. His task now is to discover the group of aspirants with which he should affiliate himself and with whom he must travel upon the Path of Initiation—a very different matter and a far more difficult one. He needs to bear in mind the meaning of the following words from the Archives of the Masters, given in question and answer form.

The questions are addressed to the neophyte who is getting his first glimpse of group relations leading to group initiation:

"And dost thou see the Door, O Chela in the light?

I see the door and hear a calling voice. What should I do, O Master of my life?

Go through that Door and waste not time in backward glances at the road just trodden. Go forward into light.

The door is far too narrow, O Master of my life. I fear I cannot pass.

Go closer to the Door and take the hand in thine of another pilgrim on the way of life.

Go closer to the Door; seek not to enter it alone.

I cannot see the door, now that I grasp the hand of the brother on the right and the brother on the left.

I seem surrounded by the pilgrims on the way. Alike they seem, their note is one;

they seem like unto me, and press round on every side. I cannot see the door.

Move forward on the Path, O pilgrim in the light, and stand together, hand in hand, before the Door of Light.

What seest thou?

The door again appears, and wide it seems, not narrow as before. What was that I saw before?

It was not like the door which now confronts this band of brothers as we stand together on the Path.

The door you saw before was a figment of your mind; a thoughtform of your separative creation,

something that cuts you off from truth—too narrow for your passing yet full of wrong allure.

Only the man who holds his brother's hand can see the Door in truth; only the man, surrounded by

the many who are one, can enter the Door which shuts itself upon the man who seeks to enter it alone."

In Lemurian days, initiates entered alone and one by one, and then only a few managed to attain the goal and one at a time were admitted to the Mysteries. In Atlantean times, when the Door of Initiation stood wide open, the aspirants to the Mysteries were admitted in groups of seven, but had not contacted their fellow group members in physical consciousness; the emphasis was still (during the training period) upon individual attainment and achievement. Today, so rapidly is man making spiritual progress, the Hierarchy is admitting groups all the time, particularly in connection with those rays which are at present in incarnation. This means that the three major rays (which are always predominantly active though they may have varying cycles of increased or decreased activity) have large groups undergoing their preparatory training for some one initiation. This group admission will develop rapidly as the world settles back into a cycle of peaceful growth and unfoldment after the drastic experience of the world war (1914-1945); it is for this that information such as I am here attempting to give must be made available.

One other point I would seek to make clear. As you know, an Ashram has in it disciples and initiates at all points of evolutionary development and of all grades and degrees; these all work together in perfect unison and yet—within their differentiated ranks, for each degree stands alone yet united with all the others—with their own established rapport, their coded telepathic interplay, and a shared occult secrecy and silence which guard the secrets and knowledges of one grade from another and from the unready. Similarly, when an aspirant, seeking upon the physical plane to find those who will share with him the mystery of his next immediate step or demonstrated expansion, discovers his own group, he will find that it has in it those who have not reached his particular point of wisdom and those also who have already left him far behind. He will be drawn into a vortex of force and a field of service simultaneously. Ponder on this statement. He will learn, therefore, the lessons required by one who is to work in an Ashram and will know how to handle himself with those who may not yet share with him the secrets which he already knows, and with those who have penetrated deeper into the Mysteries than he has.

SECTION ONE

THE ASPIRANT AND THE MYSTERIES OF INITIATION

Let us now take up our first point in this section and see what is really meant by the hackneyed words "door of initiation," and what constitutes the difference between the door which faces the disciple and that which confronts the Master.

THE ENTERING OF THE TWO DOORS OF INITIATION

It is of course obvious to you that the use of the word "door" is purely symbolic; the interpretation given to the word by the ordinary esoteric student and the orthodox Theosophist is that of a point of entry, and the significance of it to him is that it offers an opportunity to pass to new experience and fresh revelation—much of which is regarded by him as due reward for discipline and aspiration. That is largely an interpretation based on wishful thinking and is of quite secondary importance.

The Door of Initiation

The real meaning underlying the phrase "door of initiation" is that of obstruction, of something which bars the way, of that which must be opened, or of that which hides or stands between the aspirant and his objective. This is a much more exact significance and one much more useful for the aspirant to grasp. The picture of a man moving along the Path of Evolution until suddenly one day he stands before an open door through which he may joyously pass has no faintest resemblance to the truth; the idea that a man of a nice disposition and possessing certain character developments such as those portrayed in such books (by Annie Besant) as The Open Court and the Path of Discipleship, which condition the theosophical aspirants, is exceedingly misleading. These books are very useful and should be carefully studied by the man upon the Path of Probation, but are not so useful to the disciple, for they lead him to put the emphasis in the wrong direction and to focus upon that which should already have been developed. Naturally, the character development must be present and assumed to be stable in the man's equipment; these characteristics have, however, little bearing on initiation and passing through the "door" on the Path. They are indicative of the point reached upon the Path of Evolution, as a result of experiment, experience and continuous expression, and should be common to all aspirants who have reached the point of facing discipleship; they are unavoidable developments and connote simply the reaction of the personality to time and experience. It is eternally true that no one may pass through this door unless these character indications are developed, but that is due to the fact that the aspirant has progressed to a certain stage of unfoldment and automatically now has a measure of self-control, of mental understanding and of purity.

I would point out also that even the black magician possesses these qualities, for they are the sine qua non (an essential condition; a thing that is absolutely necessary) of all magical art, both black and white; the black magician passes through the door of initiation as it opens twice for the first two initiations. He passes through on the strength of his will and his character accomplishments and because the group-conscious aspect of the soul is active in him as in his brother seeking affiliation with the Great White Lodge. The love aspect is, however, lacking in the black magician. Forget not that all is energy and there is nothing else.  The energy which is an aspect of the soul and which we call magnetic attraction (the group-building quality) he shares with the spiritual aspirant.  He is essentially group conscious, and though his motives are separative, his methods are those of the group, and these he can get only from the soul.

You see again another reason why the first and second initiations are not regarded by the Lodge of Masters as major initiations. Only the third is so regarded, because at that initiation the entire personality life is flooded with energy coming from the Spiritual Triad, via the "sacrifice petals" of the will and purpose aspect of the soul.  To this type of energy the black magician is not responsive.  He can and does respond to the knowledge—most ancient and hardly won—stored up in the "knowledge petals" of the souls he can appropriate and utilise the energy of attraction (erroneously called love by some students) stored up in the "love petals" of the soul, but he cannot respond to and use the energy of divine love, working out in the divine Plan which controls all knowledge and converts it into wisdom, and which actuates and clarifies the motive which brings loving magnetic attraction into action and which we call true group consciousness and group cohesion.

It is at this point that the two ways—of darkness and of light—become widely divergent. Until the third initiation is taken, glamour may condition the attitude of those seeking to understand the life of a man upon the Path, and they may mistake the spurious for the real.

The black magician leads a disciplined life, analogous to that of the spiritual aspirant; he practices purity for his own safeguarding and not in order that he may become a channel for the energy of light; he works with power (the power of magnetic attraction) with and in groups, but he does this for his own selfish ends and for the fulfillment of his own ambitious purposes. But at the third initiation there comes to the true spiritual initiate the revelation which is the reward of perseverance and purity rightly motivated—the revelation of the divine purpose, as the soul records it in terms of the hierarchical plan, though not yet in terms of the Monad. To this purpose and to the loving Will of God (to use a trite Christian phrase) the black brother cannot respond; his aims are different. You have here the true meaning of the oft-used and misunderstood phrase, "the parting of the ways."

Both groups of aspirants (the black and the white) stand before the door of initiation and take the needed steps to open it on two similar occasions. Both overcome glamour after the second initiation, and see their way clearly ahead; but their goals emerge as widely different; one treads the broad way which leads ever deeper into matter and materialism, into darkness and "black power"; the other leads to the straight and narrow way, to the razor-edged path which leads into light and life. One group has never freed itself from the principles which governed the first solar system. They were principles entirely related to matter and substance, and were at that time and in that period (so remote that the number of years of distance can be stated only in super-astronomical figures) the conditioning factors for the initiation of the time.

Certain units of humanity—then existent—were so completely conditioned by these material principles and so deliberately unready for moving on to the comprehension of another set of principles (more expressive of the divine nature) that they remained of "fixed and selfish material purpose" and a planned distortion of the divine will was intelligently created by them. You have here a hint as to the nature of evil and a clue to a part (though only a part) of the mystery to be noted in the statement that evil and good are reverse aspects of the same one reality, and evil is that good which we should have left behind, passing on to greater and more inclusive good.

Forget not that the black magicians of today were the initiates of a previous solar system. When the door of initiation is ready to open for the third time, the parting of the ways takes place. Some follow selfish intention and the fixed determination to remain with the separative condition of matter; and to others, the divine will is clearly impressed upon them and becomes the motivating power in their lives. It was under instructions from the Great White Lodge on Sirius that the door remains closed the third time to the dark brothers. Evil, as we understand it, has absolutely no place on Sirius.

To the black magician, at this third opportunity, the door of initiation presents an insuperable barrier and obstacle; to the true spiritual neophyte, the door connotes "overcoming." We shall not consider further the approach of the black brothers to that door, but shall confine ourselves to a consideration of the initiations of the Great White Lodge.

This door of initiation is connected with the great problem of what H.P.B. calls the "mystery of electricity"; the door is itself an electrical phenomenon essentially. Having said this, even if you do not understand my meaning, you can, however, grasp the possibility that (being electrical in nature) it can easily present an obstructing force, a repelling energy to the approach of the aspirant; this is the correct way to look at it.  

It is only when the electrical energy of which the door is constituted and that of which the man is constructed at any particular time synchronise and vibrate in unison that the aspirant can pass through to greater light. This gives you a somewhat new and rather abstruse definition of initiation. Nevertheless, as science arrives at a better understanding of the human being as an electrical unit of power and light, and of his triple mechanism as created of three aspects of electricity, a truer comprehension of the significance of initiation will eventuate.

The three fires of which all things are made are electrical in nature and—speaking symbolically—it is only when "fire by friction" is dominated by "solar fire" that the first four initiations can be taken, culminating in the fifth initiation in which these two fires are subordinated to "electric fire" emanating from the monad and giving a new revelation. This monadic process begins at the third initiation.  It might be added that the third initiation (culminating in the Transfiguration) is taken on the three higher levels of the mental plane, and that it is therefore upon the fourth level of the mental plane that the aspirant first of all stands before the door, seeking initiation. That electrical unit or phenomenon of electricity which we call the fourth kingdom in nature, on this fourth subplane of the mental plane esoterically "ejects" the unit of electricity which is ready to be absorbed by the higher form of electricity. Fire by friction dies out and solar fire takes its place, and the relationship between the two higher forms of electricity becomes established.

It is solar fire which forms and likewise guards the door of initiation for the first four initiations. It is the electrical fire which forms the door of initiation for those initiations which guard the Way to the Higher Evolution.

There are four types of fire by friction which create the "obstructing door" in unison with solar fire, of which it is essentially created. These are as follows:

1. Electrical energy, composed of two forces of electricity: the innate, inert and latent force of the physical plane atoms of the dense physical vehicle, and the force which we call prana which is an aspect of the energy composing the etheric body. These two blend, combine and form the "door" through which the spiritual man must pass then he undergoes the first initiation. This provocative energy tests out every part of his physical equipment and—as he passes the test—the door opens, the opposing energies symbolically "die out," and he can pass on to the Path of Initiation, free from that type of obstruction. The physical body no longer rules him, either through its limitations and faults or through the physical disciplines which have been hitherto needed but are no longer required.

2. The electrical energy of the astral or emotional body next confronts him as he prepares to take the second initiation. You can call this energy, if you so choose, the sum total of all the glamours; a glamour is essentially a bewildering, deceiving and illusory energy-form which seeks to sidetrack and mislead the neophyte and which is attracted to him by ancient habit and old controls. He is therefore responsible for the impact of this energy. This type of energy takes form, and the massed forms of these glamours constitute the opposing door and oppose the passing of the aspirant on to the next phase of the Path. With this electrical energy he must deal before he takes the second initiation. These particular energies are not thoughtforms; they are drifting, undefined and exceedingly fluid. Of this type of energy water is the symbol, and this is one reason why this second initiation is called the Baptism initiation, or the initiation of "entering the stream."

3. The electrical energy of the mind now creates the door for the third initiation, and the obstruction which confronts the initiate is that of the electrical figments of his own thinking, shining with a light which is all their own (for they are of the highest order and type), but veiling the pure light which shines behind them. They constitute the sumtotal of illusion. This "door" is formed by the coming together of the three types of energy: fire by friction, solar fire (playing in full force at this third initiation), and electrical fire from the Spiritual Triad, making its first impact on the other two fires, for all three are in full activity at this initiatory crisis. All are localised and concentrated in that symbol of progress, the "door of initiation."

It should be becoming increasingly clear to you why the initiate is ever portrayed as one who works with the forces and energies of the planet and the system. To him, there is naught else.

4. The fourth type of "fire by friction" which confronts the initiate as he stands prepared for that initiation which we call the Great Renunciation is the electric energy of the entire integrated personality. That which is the product of every incarnation—the highly developed, powerful and "clear-eyed" personality (as it is called)—is the final event and presents the final great obstruction.

In the Gospel story there are two major episodes in the life of the Master Jesus which throw some light upon this fourth entrance through the door of initiation: the Transfiguration and the Crucifixion. In both of them the three aspects of the personality are symbolised. In the first case, they are symbolised by the three apostles who in bewilderment and profound humility took part in the third initiation, the Transfiguration; in the second case, the three were depicted by the three Crosses—the two thieves and the central Master. The difference in the fourth initiation is definite; it lies in the fact that the four aspects of the personality (counting the dense physical body as one aspect and the etheric vehicle as a second aspect of the physical body) are involved, for this fourth emanation of fire by friction has a potent and destructive effect upon the dense physical body. The Great Renunciation involves the rejection of the physical life at any cost, and that cost frequently involves its physical death.

The Great Renunciation or fourth initiation has, therefore, two aspects: the outer involvement or objective happening in the eyes of the physical plane onlooker, and the subjective aspect, portrayed symbolically by the three Crosses and those who hung upon them.

The implications emerging out of this symbolism are not easy to see, even when the superficial meaning is apparent, because that superficial meaning hides and veils a universal reality. The Master Jesus passed through the door of the fourth initiation and overcame the final hindrances offered by His perfected personality. He died upon the Cross. All the four aspects of His personality participated in the event, and all four aspects electrically obstructed His passing though this door, even to the point of their complete destruction—bringing a final liberation. Something universal was also symbolised which had naught to do with the Initiated Master Jesus.

This symbolism and its meaning are related to the three Crosses which stood side by side and to the relationship between those who hung upon them. In the three figures humanity itself is portrayed and also related to the Hierarchy, and this "pictorial event" is a parallel to the one already considered—the initiation of the Master Jesus. In the Crucifixion, in this fourth passing through the door of initiation and in the staging of this event, two great and different individualities—the Master Jesus and the World Saviour, the Christ—are implicated; two major happenings are indicated, and the Christian Church has confused the two and related both of them without discrimination to the Master Jesus. Yet one event was a hierarchical occurrence and the other was a great human crisis; one was the entrance of an initiate into the Mysteries of death, involving in the process all the four aspects of His nature; the other was a dramatic portrayal to mankind of three groups to be found within the human family:

1. Unregenerate man, pictured by the unrepentant thief.

2. The struggling aspirant, moving consciously towards liberation, symbolised for us in the repentant thief.

3. The Hierarchy, composed of all who have passed to liberation through the medium of human experience, and thereby representing to us a guarantee of achievement.

Students would do well to keep this fourfold picture and this threefold symbol clearly distinguished in their minds, for individual attainment and the group possibilities are both involved; each is, however, distinct; in the one case the Master Jesus is the participator, and in the other and the more esoteric occurrence it is the One Who overshadows Him, the Christ. It was the Master Jesus who "died" and entered into the tomb, thus climaxing His long series of incarnations and ending—by destruction—the hold of matter on the spirit; through the tomb He passed into the Hierarchy, and the destiny of the Christian Church was committed to Him; that destiny still lies in His hands. But in the Gospel story, it is the Christ Who is indicated as appearing after the resurrection and not the Master Jesus, except in the one brief episode wherein He appeared to Mary, weeping outside the door of the sepulchre.

The other episodes are universal in their implications, as indicated by:

1. Christ walking with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus—a symbol of the essential dualism of spirit and matter, as embodied in a world Saviour.

2. Christ appearing to the disciples in the upper room, symbolising the zodiac, for Judas Iscariot was there, standing for the sign at the time in power; the other eleven disciples representing the remaining signs through which the sun must pass.

3. Pentecost. This event does not portray the triumph of orthodox Christianity (as the theologians believe and teach), but signifies the universal dissemination of the Christ consciousness throughout all time in the heart of every human being; to this the words and promise, "Lo, I am with you all the days, even until the end of the world," bear witness.

It is owing to the deeply esoteric meaning of the Resurrection and the Ascension and their major significance, referring to the consciousness of the Christ, that nothing much is told us about these initiations in The New Testament, except the vaguest generalities, in contradistinction to the wealth of detail given anent the other four initiations. Four of these initiations are related to the "door of initiation" as occultly understood and with the interpretation of which we are familiar; these four are related also to the electrical "fire by friction" of which that door is constructed, and which spreads to and creates the burning ground across which the initiate must four times move in order to "enter through that door."

The other two initiations (vaguely called the Resurrection and the Ascension) are related to the second so-called "door."  This door is not in the same sense an obstruction as is the first door; it opens on to the Way of the Higher Evolution. The first door symbolically admits the initiate into the "heart of the Sun," whilst the second door—in a most mysterious sense—indicates the route which must be followed by the liberated initiate who seeks to penetrate to the Central Spiritual Sun—to which all the seven Paths eventually lead.

The Door to the Way of the Higher Evolution

I write not for those initiates who have taken the third initiation, whose personality is soul-dominated and who "walk ever in the light." It will therefore be obvious that there is relatively little that I can say at this point which will be comprehensible, as far as the true meaning goes, to you who have not as yet achieved that state. The key to your understanding lies in the realisation that our seven planes are only the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane, and that all that now transpires in the life of the initiate simply releases him from physical experience (technically physical, even on the atmic, monadic and logoic planes), into that vortex of force which we know and understand as LOVE, or onto the cosmic astral plane. The note, the quality and the influence of the cosmic astral plane is love—the higher correspondence of emotion as experienced upon the astral plane of the planetary or solar manifestation. It is therefore to be realised that the Hierarchy is definitely under the impact of energies emanating from the cosmic astral plane, whilst Shamballa reacts to influences coming from the cosmic mental plane.

The related stream of energy can therefore be seen to be from:

1. The cosmic astral plane.

2. The solar buddhic plane, reflected in our planetary buddhic plane.

3. The astral plane, the plane of glamour in the three worlds.

In relation to the mind, you have:

1. The cosmic mental plane.

2. The solar atmic plane, reflected in our planetary atmic plane.

3. The mental plane, the plane of illusion.

In connection with the references to glamour and illusion, it must be borne in mind that the reason glamour predominates and illusion functions in the three worlds is due to the fact that men identify themselves with the dense physical brain, and interpret life in terms of experience in the three worlds. There is no true astral plane, from the angle of personality identifications, but only what might be regarded as the figments of the imagination; yet fundamentally and sub-standing what we know as the astral plane is the reflection of the cosmic principle of love.

However, being essentially a reflection, it lacks basic reality from the angle of the true disciple and must be ignored as an expression of fundamental truth; at the same time, the astral plane exists from the angle of the Master, because it is an expression in dense physical cosmic substance of cosmic love. Its potency is, however, so great that it produces glamour in those who are not yet liberated. Students should remember that focussed power produces glamour where wrong identification is involved, but only reality and truth where there is freedom from the factor of form life. Therefore, temporarily, there is no astral plane for the disciple who is withdrawing identification; there is a field of service for the Master Who has no longer the power to identify His consciousness with anything in the three worlds; He can, however, relate cosmic sources with planetary and solar expressions of energy.

As we study the whole subject of initiation and the advanced initiations, it will be found necessary to remember always the relation of our seven planes to the cosmic range of planes. It is necessary also to bear in mind a fact oft forgotten, but which has been known and taught ever since modern occultism began to influence human thinking: the four planes which connote the highest possible spiritual influences, as far as humanity is concerned, are only—in the last analysis—the four etheric subplanes of the cosmic physical plane. These highest planes of our planetary life are, therefore, the source of all energy and all originating activity in our entire planetary expression and experience. These four planes are (as you already know):

1. The highest plane        Logoic plane        Will (Adi)         Life                        1st aspect
2. The monadic plane              Universal        Love                 Human monads        2nd aspect
3. The atmic plane                3rd aspect        Intelligence
4. The buddhic plane        Pure reason        Intuition

This 4th or buddhic is a fusion of 2 and 3, of love and intelligence, and produces understanding and intuitive perception.

All influences and energies, therefore, which are prevalent in our planetary existence, flow through and create the four above-mentioned planes and thus determine the nature of the evolutionary process at any given time in the three worlds. From the standpoint of a Master, the four planes are composed of forces which are basically responsive to, and finally conditioned by, the energies wielded by the Hierarchy and directed by Shamballa.  In a peculiar manner, and under the Law of Correspondences, the three lower planes—mental, emotional and physical—constitute the three dense physical subplanes of the cosmic physical plane and are not, consequently, regarded as embodying principles. H.P.B. says, in connection with our physical plane (the lowest subplane of the cosmic physical plane), that it is not a principle, and this holds good also for the greater whole. The dense physical plane is matter conditioned by a previous solar system, and is almost automatic in its response to etheric energies; these constitute the etheric bodies of all forms created out of this "unprincipled substance," as it is occultly called.

The three lower planes of our seven planes are, from the angle of the esotericist, the equally unprincipled dense cosmic substance; the mark or indication of the true initiate is the transfer of his life and his point of identification from unprincipled substance and substantial forms to "principled" substance and etheric forms. The tendency of the occult student to think ever in terms of spiritual abstraction can (and often does) militate against a grasp of the truth and presents a false picture to the intelligence; the facts which I have just emphasised have much to do with the nature of the higher initiations. I would ask you to remember this.

The third initiation, therefore, releases the initiate from the planes of unprincipled substance (the lower subplanes of the cosmic physical plane), whilst the next two initiations make it possible for him to work with intelligence and love on the two lower levels of the cosmic etheric plane—the buddhic and the atmic, the planes of spiritual love and intelligent will. The Way of the Higher Evolution leads through the monadic and logoic planes (the two highest levels of the cosmic physical plane); when the four planes of the cosmic etheric plane are completely mastered and under occult direction, the initiate is faced with the seven Paths and with the choice to tread one or other of them. His choice is naturally dependent upon ray determinations and past activity but is nevertheless a free choice, because all limitation has been removed, all wrong identification with physical forms is now impossible, and the initiate's only limitation is that imposed by entrance into cosmic levels of awareness with which he is still unfamiliar. Bear, therefore, continually in mind that the highest spiritual attainment upon and within the seven planes of our recognised planetary life is entirely conditioned by the fact that they are the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane and are composed of the three dense physical planes (our three worlds of human evolution) and the four cosmic etheric planes (the four levels of so-called spiritual development); these are conditioned by three forces and four energies. I have emphasised this by constant repetition on account of the great importance the recognition of these facts will play in any grasp you may achieve anent the Way of the Higher Evolution.

After the Master has taken the fifth initiation, He has—as you know—covered and mastered the ordinary field of evolution for humanity; that means the three worlds of ordinary human experience and the two worlds of superhuman effort, making the five fields of the spiritual activity of man. Love and intelligence are now perfectly developed in Him, though their expression and emphasis may vary according to His rays; He is aware of the fact of the Will or of the first divine aspect, with its two qualities (veiling a third) of destruction and of purpose; He is becoming active on the second plane of our planetary life, the monadic plane, and that great centre of life, Shamballa, is having a definite vibratory effect upon Him; also (and this will be incomprehensible to you) He is becoming sensitive to a range of energies and influences which can now be registered by Him, owing to His increasing monadic polarisation and His contact with Shamballa.

The cosmic astral plane becomes, for the Master, a definite objective; He is beginning to develop a great sensitivity to that level of awareness, but consciousness of that within the planetary life—as He knows it—prevents Him from registering this energy of pure cosmic love as He later will. It is this sense of limitation which is the cause of His recognition of the Door on to the Way of the Higher Evolution, for the fifth and sixth initiations liberate Him into the atmic and monadic states of awareness; these initiations are to the initiate at this stage of development what the first and second initiations are to the disciple who is seeking to tread the earlier stages of the Path of Initiation. They might therefore be regarded as initiations of the threshold—one leading to the awareness of the higher levels of conscious unfoldment which the third initiation (the first major initiation) inaugurates, and the other to those levels of impression, of contact and of future ascension which are the sevenfold goal set before the Master when the sixth initiation (the true ascension) is consummated. It is for this reason that this particular initiation is called the Initiation of Decision. The Master then chooses which of the seven Ways or Paths He will follow, because His aeonial experience has enabled Him to choose any of them and know that He has chosen aright. Though these seven Paths, being one of the septenates, are necessarily related to the seven rays, they are not ray paths, nor are they governed by the seven rays.

Any one of them is open to a Master of the Wisdom, and His choice will not be dependent upon His ray type, though He will take that factor into consideration. They are more definitely related to the seven cosmic planes than to the seven rays; this we will consider in greater detail when dealing with the factor of the seven Ashrams which are "proving" grounds for all the Masters confronted with the Initiation of Decision.

Disciples are more apt to be interested in the Ashrams from the angle of their own development; they are not prone to remember that the life progress and purpose of the Master not only determines the quality of the Ashram but that His own development and His eventual decisions are closely related to the Ashram which He controls. It is not easy for students to shift their attention away from the relation of the Ashram to humanity as a whole, or to realise that this relation is secondary to the Master Whose primary preoccupation is the unfoldment of the purposes of Sanat Kumara and the attainment of that state of Being which is significant of Shamballa.

Students need to bear in mind that one phase of preparation for future work is that which will succeed the Initiation of Decision, and that this is dependent upon the type, quality and service rendered by the Master as He conditions and controls His Ashram. This I will attempt to enlarge upon under our next heading. It is useful however, for aspirants to discipleship, and above all for those preparing for initiation and consequently already working in an Ashram, to get this different point of view and begin to unfold within themselves a new sensitivity to impression coming from sources higher than the Hierarchy itself. This involves in them a new and higher type of orientation, and though it remains as yet impossible of attainment there is definite developing value in a grasp of the concept and the effort of the abstract mind and the intuitive perception to seize upon and reflect upon a new and entirely foreign concept. This higher reflective process is to the disciple who is working in an Ashram what aspiration is to the student upon the Probationary Path and the early stages of the Path of Discipleship.

In the latter case, the aspirant's emotional body becomes responsive to the principle of buddhi, reaching him via the love petals of the egoic lotus; in the more exalted situation, the disciple becomes aware (for that is all it is) of the possibility of an impression reaching him from the cosmic astral plane, via monadic levels of awareness. Note what I say—simply the possibility—for there is at this stage no assured recognition of this goal; it is an impression which is to the disciple preparing for one of the higher initiations what an occult theory is to an aspirant on very much lower levels. The only way in which I can give any faintest idea of the higher reaches of the initiate consciousness will be through reference to lower grasped capacities and the presentation of undefinable truths in terms of that which has been defined and which (to these higher states of awareness) are in the nature of seed thoughts.

Some small grasp of the nature of the consciousness of Shamballa will emerge as we study this section of the Treatise, for the higher levels of the cosmic etheric plane are permeated with energies emanating from the cosmic astral plane and the cosmic mental plane; these energies, playing through and directed by the great Lives Who form a permanent nucleus of the Council Chamber at Shamballa, do condition and are the impelling, motivating and relating power behind all the evolutionary processes on lower levels.

Yet, the life and consciousness of the Hierarchy are very different to the life and consciousness of Those Who constitute the great centre called Shamballa; the developing sensitivity to increasingly high impression, which is the result of each stage of the final initiatory process, is the only way in which the distinction and the goal become apparent. Just as those who read and study these ideas are occupied with concepts and thoughts totally unrealised and wholly inexplicable and sometimes even senseless, to the ordinary everyday businessman in the street, so there are also ranges of thought and eternal extra-planetary concepts which are equally unknown and temporarily inexplicable to the initiate working in an Ashram under some Master. When the student realises that the great universal Oneness which he associates with monadic consciousness, is only the registration of impressions localised (and therefore limited) and defined within the etheric levels of the cosmic physical plane, he can perhaps grasp the implications of the wonder which will be revealed to the initiate who can transcend the entire cosmic physical plane (our seven planes of the human, superhuman and the divine worlds) and function upon another cosmic level. This is what the treading of the Way of the Higher Evolution enables a Master eventually to do.

One interesting fact emerges out of all this comparative work and this mode of analogical teaching, and that is that the word "spiritual" refers neither to religious matters (so-called) nor to the Path of Discipleship or the Path of the major or higher initiations, but to the relationships on every level of the cosmic physical plane, to every level from the lowest to the highest. The word "spiritual" relates to attitudes, to relationships, to the moving forward from one level of consciousness (no matter how low or gross, from the point of view of a higher level of contact) to the next; it is related to the power to see the vision, even if that vision is materialistic as seen from the angle of a higher registration of possibility; the word "spiritual" refers to every effect of the evolutionary process as it drives man forward from one range of sensitivity and of responsiveness to impression to another; it relates to the expansion of consciousness, so that the unfoldment of the organs of sensory perception in primitive man or in the awakening infant are just as surely spiritual events as participation in an initiatory process; the development of the so-called irreligious man into a sound and effective businessman, with all the necessary perception and equipment for success, is as much a spiritual unfoldment—in that individual's experience—as the taking of an initiation by a disciple in an Ashram.

The assumption by orthodox church people that the word "spiritual" connotes profound and effective interest in orthodox religion is not borne out by the facts of the spiritual life. Some day, when the world is increasingly led by its initiates, this erroneous assumption will be discarded, and it will be realised that all activity which drives the human being forward towards some form of development (physical, emotional, intuitional, and so forth) is essentially spiritual in nature and is indicative of the livingness of the inner divine entity.

I have felt it necessary to point this out because it will become apparent as we read and study this section of the Treatise that the Master—moving forward into higher areas of impressionability—may not and frequently will not express this development in terms of what is now regarded as "spiritual" by the religious devotee and by the man used to the wording and the terminology of the churchmen of all faiths. The discoveries of science, my brother, or the production of some great work in literature or in the field of art, are just as much an evidence of "spiritual" unfoldment as the rhapsodies of the mystic or the registration by the so called occultist of a contact with the Hierarchy.

There will, however, come a point in the experience of all those thus making a spiritual approach along some specialised line, where a meeting place will become apparent, where a joint goal will be unitedly recognised, where essential unity under diversity of forms, of methods and of techniques will be acknowledged, and where pilgrims on all ways of approach will know themselves to be one band of demonstrators of the divine.

One such meeting place is upon the periphery of the Hierarchy during the stage immediately prior to acceptance into an Ashram. It is interesting to note that—on a world-wide scale—the world disciple, Humanity, is today on the verge of this major awakening and joint registration of a unity not hitherto reached; the growth of the spirit of internationalism, the inclusiveness of the scientific attitude, and the spread of a universal humanitarian welfare movement are all indicative of this meeting place.

Another such meeting place is recorded and entered (symbolically speaking) when the third initiation is taken, and still another is realised at the time of the seventh initiation.  These all register development in group awareness, as well as in the recognition of the individual initiate, as to what is happening within the consciousness aspect of humanity.  The door into the Way of the Higher Evolution simply permits the entrance of the sensitive initiate into "spheres of intimacy" (as they are sometimes called) which are this time cosmic in their implications, planetary in their effects, and which give to the initiate what has been called the "key to the Sun"—as it conditions the solar system—just as the door to initiation gives to the aspirant the "key to the kingdom of God."

We have dealt in the foregoing pages with deep matters and have touched upon topics too high for the understanding of the average student or probationary disciple; dim recognitions, based on past acceptances are, however, possible to some of you. We have seen, among other things, that the so-called "door of initiation" presents obstacles whose purpose is to block entrance and to draw out the latent will of the applicant; an initiate is one who succeeds in penetrating to the further side of the door, where recognition awaits him. We will now concern ourselves with the basic theme of the Ashram itself.

The Entering of the Ashram

This theme necessarily has great interest for all aspirants and would-be disciples, but I am not at first going to deal with the subject from the angle of humanity and its effort to establish contact with the Ashram. I desire first of all to speak of the Ashram as a whole, constituted of many Ashrams and creating an "invoking area" of relationship for the supreme Head of the Ashram, Sanat Kumara, the Lord of the World.  I seek to enter into no discussion of this leading Life of our entire planet.  HE is to a still greater Being, the One referred to elsewhere as "the One about Whom naught may be said," what the vehicle of a Master in physical incarnation is to Him, and on a less accurate basis, what your personality is to you; it is an expression of the soul or of the Monad when a disciple has attained initiate-consciousness. All the qualities, the love and the purpose of a supreme Entity, referred to in The New Testament as the "Unknown God," are focussed in Sanat Kumara. Some gauge of the unfoldments which can lie ahead of humanity will enter the human consciousness when:

1. The fact of the Hierarchy
2. The nature of its relationship to Shamballa
3. The spiritual nature of Those Who respond in reverent obedience to the slightest wish of the Lord of the World, are among the accepted truths whereby men live. This will happen after the externalisation of the Hierarchy.

This Lord of the World is the sole repository of the will and purpose of the One of Whom He is an expression; this again can be understood by you as evoking the same relation to the "unknown God" as your personality—when expressing adequately the soul and later the Monad—conditions your perception, knowledge, plans and purpose, and controls the quality of your life and directs the energy which you express.

His vehicle of manifestation is the planet with its seven centres, of which only three are yet recognised by the occult student: Shamballa, His head centre, the Hierarchy, His heart centre, and Humanity, His throat centre. The other four centres are concerned with evolutions which are reached, controlled and related from one or other of these three major centres. The solar plexus is dominated by the Hierarchy, the heart centre of Sanat Kumara, and has a close relation to the deva evolution, hinted at by me in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. The vastness of this subject will be understood by my use of the word "hint" in reference to what I have earlier written on the subject.

The centre which we call Shamballa controls that mysterious centre which is the correspondence to that which we call "the centre at the base of the spine"; this is the inadequate name given to the reservoir of threefold fire, latent and quiescent, which is found at the base of the human spine; it is entirely inactive except in those people who have taken the third initiation. The planetary centre is related to the three fires (electric fire, solar fire, and fire by friction) which are the source of the life, warmth, moisture and growth of all forms upon our planet. It may seem curious and inexplicable to you, but the centre of creativity is affected, and I had almost said guarded, by the "centre which we call the race of men"; the reference in the serious occult books to the future of humanity as the Saviour of all the subhuman kingdoms has relation to this fact.

The ajna centre of the Lord of the World is just beginning to express itself in a recognisable manner through the New Group of World Servers. This intermediate group—between the Hierarchy and Humanity—is a carrier of the energy which makes the Plan possible (the Plan of which the Hierarchy is the custodian). This Plan implements the Purpose, and later, when the New Group of World Servers is organised and is recognised as a living organism, it will definitely receive energy from Shamballa in a direct reception, via the Hierarchy. This information is, I realise, of little immediate importance to you, but—towards the end of the century—it will be found explanatory of much.

Though the Christ is the Head of the Hierarchy, it is Sanat Kumara, the Ancient of Days, Whose Ashram it truly is. The Christ (I am using one of His official names) is indeed the Master of all the Masters and the Coordinator of the entire life of the great Ashram, in conjunction with the two other hierarchical Officials, the Manu and the Mahachohan. The information I gave as to the constitution of the Hierarchy, in Initiation, Human and Solar, was along the same line. The Hierarchy is the Ashram of Sanat Kumara, but He has delegated His authority, right down the ages, to the so-called World Saviours successively; Their life expression embodied in every case the goal of the period during which They held office.

In the early days of the Hierarchy, millennia of years ago, neither the official Directors of the Hierarchy nor the Masters were of the calibre which They are today. Had They been so, They would have been too far removed from the factual life of the cycle, and therefore useless for the cycle of divine life which existed. The growth of humanity and its evolutionary status (when compared with primordial and primitive man) can be seen in the quality of the Hierarchy today, which humanity produced and towards which it looks for guidance and teaching. This is an interesting point which I offer for your consideration. Never forget, my brothers, that as it is humanity which has furnished the personnel of the Hierarchy—including the Christ, the first of our humanity to achieve divinity—we have, therefore, the guarantee and the assurance of humanity's ultimate success.

The three major Executives of the Hierarchy:

1. The Christ, representing the second Ray of Love-Wisdom

2. The Manu, representing the first Ray of Will or Power

3. The Mahachohan, representing the third Ray of Active Intelligence

They are responsible to the Lord of the World for the processing of the life and impulse which condition the evolutionary process. This statement is made without any further definition by me because the whole subject is too abstruse and it would require another Treatise like that on Cosmic Fire to make it even a little clearer.

Humanity can only be the recipient of this type of information after the first Ray of Will or Power has become more active; this will take place when the work of the second Ray of Love-Wisdom has reached its next cyclic crisis point. The crisis points of a ray are ever indicative of success and have in them the quality of joy.  Mankind will then be much freer from the spirit of separateness, and a measure of peace, unity and cooperation will be conditioning human relations. There is a constant shifting in the state of the planetary consciousness and this, though implemented from Shamballa, is produced by humanity itself; this unfolding human consciousness leads mankind eventually out of the fourth kingdom in nature into the fifth, the hierarchy of souls, and—at the same time—raises the level of consciousness in all the three subhuman kingdoms. This series of happenings will remain for a long time inexplicable to man, though the results can be seen in the effect which humanity has had on the animal kingdom, through domestication; on the vegetable kingdom, through specialisation and science; and on the mineral kingdom, through the skilled utilisation of metals and the widespread use of the mineral products of the earth.

It must be borne in mind that the Council Chamber of the Lord at Shamballa is a unit, but that the Hierarchy is a differentiation of this basic unity into the seven major Ashrams and the forty-nine Ashrams which are gradually forming. The Hierarchy is, however, a unity within itself, for the entire ashramic life is guarded by a ring-pass-not, created by its radiation; the seven and the forty-nine Ashrams are held together by the magnetic interplay of the whole. It is this radiation which affects by its quality the senior aspirants in the world, and draws them gradually into relationship with itself and finally into its magnetic field. This is aided by the clarity of perception, the intensification of the livingness of the rightly oriented aspirant. I prefer the word "livingness" to that of "vibration," so widely used in modern occultism.

There is therefore a dual inflow into the Ashram of Sanat Kumara, controlled and directed by the three hierarchical Directors:

1. From Shamballa itself. This is a flow of energising life or of what we might call "unfettered enlightenment"; this impresses the purpose or the will of the Lord of the World upon the united Hierarchy in a manner incomprehensible to you; it also creates a dynamic magnetic impulse which enables the graded initiates, through the medium of the Ashrams, to organise the Plan and set it in motion, so that the Purpose gradually materialises on earth. Because the senior initiates, from the Christ down to initiates of the fourth degree, are conscious in varying ways (according to ray) of the Eternal Now, and can work free from the compulsion of time, They can see the impressed Purpose as a more complete whole than can initiates of lesser degree and development. It is this capacity which makes Them responsive to Shamballa, where the living will of the "Unknown God" (for a period of a life cycle) is seen in completeness and is already existent. The Hierarchy is, however, handicapped in its activity by the time sense and the materialistic focus of the "centre which we call the race of men."

2. From Humanity. There is a constant (and increasing) flow of reoriented human energy penetrating into and beyond the radiatory periphery. This penetrating energy, implemented by the individual aspirant and disciple, is that of intelligent activity and—little as you may have realised it—it is this constant inflow which aids in the intelligent application of the Plan to human affairs.

The Science of Impression, which governs the technique of Shamballa, functions through the three different centres in three different ways:

1. Shamballa - dynamic impression

2. The Hierarchy - magnetic telepathy

3. Humanity - radiatory sensitivity

Yet these three are only manifestations of the will of God as it works out in the activities of His three major centres.

One point should here be made: the entry of a member of the human family into the ranks of the initiates and his participation in the activity of some one or other of the Ashrams produces a movement out of the Hierarchy of some Master and into the highest centre of all; it has this effect only after the entering initiate has taken the third initiation, and can therefore take his part in the hierarchical life as a monadic expression susceptible to impression from Shamballa. When a Master thus emerges He is immediately confronted with the choice between the seven Paths. With this development and decision we shall later deal. The seven Paths are all concerned with purpose, just as the seven Ashrams are all concerned with the plan. There is, as you will later see, a direct relation between the seven Paths and the seven Ashrams. Though we shall not deal with the subject at all, there is likewise a correspondence in the third major centre, Humanity. You have, therefore, curiously interrelated:

The seven Paths - The seven Rays - The seven Ashrams - The seven Races

Students would do well to bear in mind that these relationships are the result of the involutionary activity of the life expression of the Lord of the World. The key to the mystery of differentiation is found by the Master when He is faced by the choice of the seven Paths. At that high point of will expression, He discovers the secret of that evolutionary process which proceeds from unity to differentiation, and from differentiation to unity again. Individualisation, Initiation and Identification are the three main stages in the evolutionary activity of the life of God and condition the quality of each of the three divine centres. The four related septenates, enumerated above, eventually produce a synthesis which will consummate upon the cosmic mental plane. This is of course beyond my powers to teach or to explain, as I am not yet a liberated Master, though I am a liberated human being.

In the human centre, the man becomes identified with himself; in the Hierarchy, he becomes identified with the group; in Shamballa, He becomes identified with the planetary WHOLE. When that takes place, He is then aware for the first time that other identifications—lying beyond the planetary ring-pass-not—confront Him; His choice of one or other of the Paths is conditioned by the quality of His previous identifications, which are in their turn conditioned by His ray type.

Passing from these broad generalisations, which in reality lie far beyond our present grasp but which will have their future usefulness, let us now consider the Hierarchy as it exists (in the consciousness of Sanat Kumara, as His Ashram) and as it constitutes "the noble middle Path" to which the Buddha refers, and fills the intermediate and the mediating place between Shamballa and Humanity. This position of the Hierarchy must never be forgotten.

The seven Groups of Ashrams within the Hierarchy

It is because the first Ray of Will or Power, through its Ashram, is related to Shamballa, that the Master Morya is the Head of all truly esoteric schools. In the esoteric enterprise and in the work done by disciples in the Ashrams, the Will is developed so that the Purpose may eventually be understood. He relates the three points of the triangle composed of the Hierarchy, the world of souls on the mental plane, and those human souls who (on all Rays) are ready for contact with the Hierarchy. They have made contact with their souls, and this is registered in the Hierarchy.

The triangle is, therefore, as follows:

As the externalisation of the Ashram proceeds, those souls upon the physical plane who are ready for enlightenment will find their way into the New Group of World Servers; this group will increasingly assume potent relation between the units of life within its periphery, the Ashram, and humanity. From one point of view, the New Group of World Servers can be regarded not only as a relating group, but also as a great transforming station, dowered later (though not noticeably so at the present time) with two functions in relation to the Ashram:

1. One function is to enable "externalising units of perfection" (the higher initiates and the Masters) to step down Their individual potency to such a degree that They will be able to work in physical objectivity on the earth, with no undesirable effects upon humanity. I refer to average and undeveloped human beings. Students should bear in mind that contact with Those Who are initiates of high degree and members of an Ashram has the following three effects upon humanity:

1. On evolved men, aspirants, probationers and disciples, the effect is stimulating and magnetic.

2. On average human beings, capable of little response yet susceptible to impact and sensitive to impression, the effect is not helpful and is often destructive, because their etheric bodies are not competent to entertain and employ such high vibrations.

3. On undeveloped humanity, the effect has been called "condensation or concretisation"; all their natural qualities (the qualified substance of their three bodies) are solidified; thus they create an automatic barrier to the entry of the too high impulses and vibrations.

2. The second function is to enable those who are making definite soul contact, reorienting themselves and nearing the periphery of the Ashram, to absorb with profit the radiation of the Hierarchy.

I would like at this point to refer back to the time sense in relation to the Hierarchy and its work, to which I referred a few pages back. It involves the inability of the average disciple to think in terms of the Ashram—the Ashram of the Christ, representing Sanat Kumara. When he turns his thoughts to the Master and the radiatory and magnetic group which He has attracted to Himself, the disciple almost inevitably thinks in terms of "my Master and His Ashram." Yet this is not in any sense a statement of truth. There is one great Ashram, the Hierarchy, radiating (after due absorption of light, understanding and power from Shamballa, and this inflow is adequate to hierarchical need) as it seeks to aid not only the human evolution but all the other evolutions, of which humanity, in several cases, knows nothing.

The great Ashram is likewise magnetic in its effect, and through its magnetic potency (brought about by an inflow of first ray power) "units of life and devotion"—human beings—are brought into the Ashram as disciples in preparation for initiation. People are apt to regard magnetic potency as evidence of love; it is, in reality, evidence of the radiation of love when enhanced and strengthened by first ray energy. It is the admixture (if I may use such a peculiar term) of love and will which produces radiation. It is the conscious use by the Hierarchy of the power coming from Shamballa which results in the magnetic impact and the spiritual "pull" which draws the soul, incarnated in the body, towards the Ashram. This pull is directed towards the world of souls which is, through its manifesting units, undergoing experience in the school of life, yet overshadowed by the soul on its own level. It is this overshadowing soul which absorbs and utilises the magnetic power and which, from soul levels, transfers it to the souls of men.

There is still another point upon which I would like to touch. Owing to the fact that the Law which governs the Hierarchy is the second systemic law, the Law of Attraction, students are apt to think that magnetism is a second ray quality. They are right in so far that all the systemic laws are expressions of the life of God through the medium, at this time, of the second ray, which makes our solar system a second ray system. All other laws and qualities (for a law from the divine angle is the motivating, qualified agent of the divine will, as understood in Shamballa) are related to the second ray as it manifests through our planetary Logos.

Nevertheless, magnetic action is more closely allied to first ray functioning than it is to the second ray, and is an aspect or quality of the Law of Synthesis. It was this magnetic power of the first ray to which the Christ referred when He said "I, if I be lifted up (The Ascension Initiation), will draw all men unto me."  He faced then those initiations which would qualify Him to become what is esoterically called "a Shamballa recipient." There is, in magnetic action, more of the element of the will and of an expressing purpose. In explanation it might be said that the radiation of the Hierarchy, which is definitely second ray in nature, and which is projected as attractive radiation, is implemented by the magnetic aspect.

This, as the Old Commentary puts it, is "a point of focussed fire, found in the centre of the jewel. It stirs to life the quality of love which permeates the Ashram of the Lord. Radiation then can penetrate to other centres and to other lives, and thus the Lord is served." It is this point of focussed dynamic will at the very heart of the Hierarchy which in reality implements the Plan.

To put the matter as simply as possible—too simply to be entirely exact, yet near enough to the truth to be clarifying and helpful—it is this magnetic potency, this dynamic active and energising will, which enables the Hierarchy to move forward upon the eternal Path. Its functions might be listed as follows:

1. It is the connecting energy which comes from Shamballa and "enlivens" (literally and occultly understood) the Ashram of Sanat Kumara. It is, in one sense, the higher correspondence to the prana which "enlivens" the dense physical body of man.

2. It is the stimulating factor which produces cohesion among the various Ashrams, and is one of the sources of hierarchical unity. Putting it in other words, it is the service of the Plan which binds the seven Ashrams, with their subsidiary Ashrams, coherently into the one great Ashram. The Plan is the expression of the Purpose or the Will of God.

3. This Shamballic magnetism not only relates the Ashrams to each other, but it is also the potency which evokes the will or the first ray nature inherent in every man but which is only consciously and definitely unfolded within the periphery of the great Ashram.

4. In a mysterious sense, it is the life of that seed or germ which will come to fruition in the third solar system:

1. In the "centre which we call the race of men" the potency of intelligence (developed in a previous solar system) is brought to fruition and the stirrings of the potency of love are felt.

2. In the "centre which is nearest to the Lord" the potencies of intelligence and love are expressed, and at the third initiation the magnetic pull of the potency of will is felt.

3. In the "centre where the will of God is known" the intelligent loving Master, now responsive to the energy of the will, is faced with the seven Paths whereon that will can come to fruition and the "units of love can be transferred because they also will and know." They can then form part of the third solar system which will be definitely under the influences coming from the cosmic mental plane, just as, in this solar system, the energies coming from the cosmic astral plane have been the major influence.

All this is, of course, an inadequate expression of abstruse truth. The cosmic astral plane is not an illusion, as is the astral plane with which we are all so unhappily acquainted. The reason for this lies in the fact that all our planes constitute the cosmic physical plane and are therefore regarded—as far as three worlds of human evolution are concerned—as illusion, for the dense physical substance is not a principle. This you have oft been told. The cosmic astral plane is a reservoir of love energy, pouring into two of our planes which constitute part of the cosmic etheric body—the monadic plane and the buddhic plane.

5. It is that which permeates the radiation from the Hierarchy to which humanity is responsive. No disciple or aspirant can be drawn into the periphery of the Hierarchy, and from thence into an Ashram, without finding that his will nature is being affected. It will only show itself at this stage as persistence and determination. Persistence is a quality of life and related to immortality, whilst determination is the lowest aspect of the will. Their development produces a reorientation which becomes a permanent attitude, and the disciple then becomes responsive not only to the "vitalised radiation" coming from the periphery of the Hierarchy but also, in an increasing measure, to the "magnetic pull" which emanates from the Hierarchy itself, and in particular from the Ashram to which he must eventually find his way.

If you will make a close study of all the above information, you may find some measure of enlightenment. It is the great simplicities which must be ever kept in mind: the three great divine aspects, the septenates of the evolutionary process, the divine qualities or principles, and the relation of energy to force. With these clearly held in mind, the detail is of small moments the intuition rapidly assimilates and relates the detail, if there be need to do so, to the manifesting whole.

To return to our theme, which is the expression of the great Ashram through the medium of the seven Ashrams, it is this magnetic energy of the first aspect which is found at the heart of the seven Ashrams, energised and enlightened from the reservoir of will energy found at the heart of the great Ashram itself. This reservoir is fed from the "centre where the will of God is known," and the directing agent of this energy, within the Hierarchy itself, is the Christ and His two Associates, the Manu and the Mahachohan. The forty-nine subsidiary Ashrams (not all of which are yet functioning) are energised by the potency of will from the reservoir of energy at the heart of each major Ashram, these in their turn being fed from the central reservoir. The correspondence of this in the human centres is called the "jewel in the lotus."

Let us now study the formation of the great Ashram and then the gradual formation of the seven Ashrams under direct ray activity. This process lies in the past history of humanity and I shall only briefly touch upon it. Once formed, it became the task of these seven Ashrams to produce the forty-two Ashrams. These seven Ashrams express ray qualities, and the whole forty-nine are expressive of the forty-nine fires, referred to in The Secret Doctrine; through these fires, the God of Fire seeks to make Himself known.

As we study some of the esoteric details connected with the life, the quality and, later, the appearance of the Ashrams of the Masters, I would remind you of certain points I have already made; your minds then will be predisposed to right thinking and interpretation. I am anxious for your approach to the subject to be correct. I have given you a number of definitions of an Ashram in the previous pages and in my other books, and I would have you bear these in mind. The concept of a college group, of a band of workers or of a number of men and women working under the supervision of a Master is too apt to colour your thoughts. The complete freedom from all coercion or from any supervision of daily activity, the instinctive reaction of all within the Ashram to the ray influence and to the "breath of the prevailing Will" is something very different. I seek in what I intend to impart to you to give a very different impression.  In our next section, on the dual life of the initiatory process, the newer concepts may emerge more clearly. The points I want you to bear in mind are as follows:

1. The great Ashram, the Hierarchy, is composed of many Ashrams, creating an "invoking area" of relationship for Sanat Kumara.

2. The Christ, aided by the Manu and the Mahachohan, is the Coordinator of the entire life of the great Ashram.

3. The personnel of the great Ashram is today entirely provided from the ranks of humanity. This was not so in the earlier cycles.

4. The great Ashram is formed of seven major Ashrams and forty-two secondary Ashrams which are gradually forming.

5. The entire Ashram is a unity, for the ashramic life in its differentiated groups is guarded by a ring-pass-not.

6. This ring-pass-not is provided by radiation.

7. The forty-two lesser Ashrams are held together by the magnetic interplay of the whole.

8. Aspirants are drawn into relation with the Ashram through its radiation and enter finally into its magnetic field.

9. There is a dual flow of energy or force into the great Ashram:

1. Energising life from Shamballa or what is called "unfettered enlightenment."

2. The energy of active intelligence from Humanity, thus enabling the Masters to formulate the Plan.

10. The seven Ashrams are all concerned with the Plan.

11. The Master Morya is the Head of all esoteric schools which truly prepare an aspirant for ashramic contact and work. The reason that a first ray Master is thus the Head is because it is the Will aspect which is developed within the Ashram.

12. It is the service of the Plan which binds the seven Ashrams, with their subsidiary Ashrams, into the one great Ashram.

13. It is only within his ray Ashram that the will of the disciple is developed.

14. The magnetic, dynamic energy of the first aspect of divinity is found at the heart of each of the seven Ashrams, fed from a reservoir of will energy which is found at the heart of the great Ashram itself.

15. The forty-two subsidiary Ashrams are energised by the reservoir of will energy found at the heart of each of the major Ashrams.

16. The seven Ashrams express each the quality of their ray, one of the seven ray types.

There was a time when (in the early history of the planet) there was no Hierarchy; there were only two major centres in the expression of the life of the Lord of the World: Shamballa and His embryonic throat centre, Humanity. Shamballa was the head centre. There was no humanity, such as we now know it, but only something so primitive that it is well-nigh impossible for you to grasp its significance or factual expression. But the life of God was there, plus an inherent "urge" and a dynamic "pull."

These two factors rendered the mass of men (if one may call them so) inchoately invocative, thus drawing from high spiritual centres certain developed and informed Lives Who—in increasing numbers—"walked among men" and led them slowly, very slowly, forward into increasing light. The early history of the Hierarchy falls into two historical eras in the process of its becoming a "mediating Centre":

First: The time when the relating, mediating, enlightening correspondences to Those we now call the Masters trod the earth with men and were not withdrawn and apparently invisible, as is now the case. Their task was to bring the primitive intelligence of humanity to the point where there could be the presentation of the Plan, with eventual cooperation. In occult parlance, Their work was the establishing of a rapport between the unrevealed second aspect (to which They were responsive) and Humanity. In this They succeeded, but the matter aspect and quality—that of active intelligence—was so strong that the second historical phase became essential.

Second: The time when the Hierarchy was created as we know it today; the heart centre of Sanat Kumara came into its own life, formed its own magnetic field, possessed its own ring-pass-not, and became a dynamic mediating centre between Shamballa and Humanity.

It has oft been told in occult and theosophical literature that the Hierarchy withdrew as a penalising measure because of the wickedness of mankind. This is only superficially true and is an instance of a man-made interpretation; giving us the first example of the fear-and-punishment psychology which— from that time on—has conditioned all religious teaching. The withdrawing Masters had Their Paul to distort the truth, just as had the Christ, Their august Head today. The truth was far otherwise.

The time came in those distant aeons when a certain percentage of human beings reached, through their own efforts, the stage (at that time demanded) of preparedness for initiation. This attainment brought surprising results:

1. It became possible for certain of the Masters to "return from whence They came."

2. It became necessary to provide conditions where these men "accepted for unfettered enlightenment" could receive the needed training.

3. The process of creation had reached the evolutionary stage where the centres of the Lord of the World were differentiated; function and radiatory activity were established, and this produced a stronger "pull" and placed the Hierarchy "at the midway point." A station of light and power was formed. All this was made possible because humanity could now produce its own "enlightened ones."

These two historical periods (not events, except in so far that all TIME is a sequence or pattern of events) covered vast cycles; aeon by aeon, the work went on until we have today the three major centres in the planet, demonstrating great activity, much more closely related than ever before, and ready now to enter into a third historical period. In this coming cycle we shall see the first stages of the great spiritual fusion towards which all evolution tends; it will take the form of the externalisation of the Ashram, so that the Hierarchy (or the centre where the love of God is known and the purpose of Sanat Kumara is formulated into the Plan) and Humanity will meet on the physical plane and occultly know each other. Two centres then will be "visible in the light"—the Hierarchy and Humanity. When these two centres can work in full cooperation, then Shamballa will take form and will no longer be found existing only in cosmic etheric substance, as is now the case.

What this means, how it will be accomplished, and what the implications are, will be revealed in such a distant future that we need waste no time considering it. We are working and living in the initial stages of the period wherein preparation is being made for the emergence of the Hierarchy into the world of men. This emergence is at present purely on to mental levels, but when the thoughtform of exoteric existence is created by Humanity itself and the invocative cry is intense enough, then the Great Ashram will slowly make its appearance upon the physical plane.

On that plane, the distinction between the two centres will be preserved, but the inner relationship and the spiritual fusion will steadily proceed until:

1. Soul and personality are one

2. Love and intelligence are coordinated

3. Plan and fulfillment are achieved

All this will be brought about through the invocative spirit in man, plus the initiatory process, carried on in the Ashrams of the great Ashram. What this coming process will entail of change in civilisation, in human nature and in the group expression of the human spirit—religions, society and politics—it is not possible here to say; so much lies hidden in the free will and right timing of mankind. But that future of spiritual cooperation and interplay within and without the great Ashram is assured, and for it all true disciples are working. The world situation today is therefore one of great interest. Humanity, the world disciple, is in process of recovering from a major test, prior to a great step forward towards a conscious approach to more spiritual living; this, factually, means a definite approach to the Hierarchy.

In the meantime the Hierarchy is orienting itself to a much closer rapport with humanity, and to an interior reorganisation which will make it possible to admit disciples in large numbers into the great Ashram. This will lead to the implementation of the lesser Ashrams and also to a preparation for the transmission of more of the Will energy, through the great Ashram, into the throat centre of Sanat Kumara, Humanity.

The seven major Ashrams are each responsive to one of seven types of ray energy and are focal points in the Hierarchy of the seven rays. The central, senior and major Ashram is (at this time) the repository of second ray energy, as this ray governs this second solar system. It is the Ashram of Love-Wisdom— the Ashram in which the Buddha and the Christ received Their initiations and through which each of Them works. It will be obvious that if the process of invocation and evocation governs the interplay of the planetary centres, you have in this fact another reason why the senior Ashram is second ray in quality. Invocation is related to radiation. Evocation is related to magnetism. These are two points worthy of your consideration.

The other six major Ashrams came sequentially into being as the invocation of primitive man reached such a point of intensity of expression that a response was evoked from Shamballa, via its ray Representatives, working with directed energy in the three worlds. A "point of radiatory force" was established, at first in relation to the second ray Ashram, and later to the other Ashrams. One by one, as the rays cycled into activity in the three worlds and eventually on the physical plane, the seven Ashrams were founded, developed and expanded until the time arrived—several aeons ago—when all seven Ashrams were fully organised, and through them passed a steady flow of human beings liberating themselves from the three worlds.

In the earliest times this flow of disciples was exceedingly small. One by one, individual aspirants found their way out of the ranks of humanity and inside the ring-pass-not of the Hierarchy. In the beginning, only the first two initiations were given and only through the instrumentality of the second ray; and at these initiations the World Teacher of the period of officiated.

Then at a time when the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order (the ray which plays so potent and mysterious a part in the phase of discipleship called initiation) was in cyclic activity, a much greater number of disciples appeared, prepared for initiation; the initiatory process was then administered in a seventh ray Ashram; this seventh ray Ashram was the second to be formed, owing to the fact that the seventh ray is the relating factor between life and matter upon the form side.

Again, so the ancient Archives tell us, there came a great crisis in the evolution of humanity; this necessitated one of the rare cyclic changes which have distinguished the fluid policy of the Hierarchy. Men began to demonstrate responsiveness to the Law of Integration and personality appeared with all its potentiality for good and evil. Man became an integrated unit in the three worlds. A great possibility then emerged; man could, through training and the use of the mind, make contact with the soul. This had not hitherto been done except to a slight degree. This crisis therefore led to the creation, or rather to the appearance, of the initiatory process to which we have given the name of the third initiation.

The Hierarchy for the first time realised the complete success of the vast work, carried on in the human centre for millions of years. Soul and personality could be and were intelligently fused. This is one of the reasons why the Hierarchy regards the third initiation as the first major initiation; it marked a point of complete soul-personality integration. In the earlier initiations, the soul was present but was still only occasionally in control; constant failure in the three worlds was still possible, and the relation between the man in the three worlds and his soul was nebulous and largely potential.

You will realise what I mean when I point out that many thousands of people in the world today have taken the first initiation and are oriented towards the spiritual life and the service of their fellowmen; their lives, however, frequently leave much to be desired, and the soul is obviously not in constant control; a great struggle is still being waged to achieve purification on all three levels. The lives of these initiates are faulty and their inexperience great, and a major attempt is instituted in this particular cycle to achieve soul fusion. When that is attained, then the third initiation (the first, hierarchically speaking) is taken. Today this triple process of preparation, purification and fusion is the ordinary practice of the disciple and the process has prevailed for untold years; but when this fusion first occurred, it marked a great hierarchical event. It was a crisis of supreme spiritual import.

As you know, the first human being out of that "centre which we call the race of men" to achieve this point was the Christ; in that first great demonstration of His point of attainment (through the medium of what was then a new type of initiation) the Christ was joined by the Buddha. The Buddha had attained this same point prior to the creation of our planetary life, but conditions for taking the third initiation were not then available, and He and the Christ took the initiation together. At this initiation, and since then for all initiates of that degree of attainment, They stood in the Presence of the One Initiator, the Lord of the World, and not in the Presence of the Initiate Who was then Head of the Hierarchy. This third initiation was taken in a fourth ray Ashram, the Ray of Harmony through Conflict. This Ashram had taken form and attained functioning activity some time earlier.

You can see, under the Law of Correspondences, why this was so. The first human being in the fourth kingdom in nature to take this initiation did so in a fourth ray Ashram and then, esoterically speaking, "the Way lay open toward the Cross"; the initiate faced the process of extension on the Cross, and from that vantage point could view the three worlds. The fourth initiation then became a possibility; the crucifixion faced the disciple of the third degree with its promise of complete liberation and final resurrection.

You can see, therefore, what a tremendous crisis took place in the relation between Humanity and the Hierarchy—a crisis of such importance that Shamballa became involved and the Lord of time World Himself admitted the initiate to the higher contacts.  Between that time and the crucifixion of the Master Jesus, the sixth ray Ashram, the fifth and the third, have all been formed around the nucleus of light, started by the ray Lords much earlier. The point of light and of will energy at the centre of each Ashram has existed for untold millennia of years, but the Ashrams themselves were only slowly formed around the nucleus as the various types of energy swept into manifestation and brought with them human types responsive to the ray energy.

When the Master Jesus took the Crucifixion Initiation, another crisis arose of equally great import, if not greater.  The crisis was brought about because simultaneously with the crucifixion of the Master, the Head of the Hierarchy, the Christ, took two initiations in one:  the Resurrection Initiation and that of the Ascension. These are the fifth and sixth initiations, according to the Christian terminology. This was possible because the first ray Ashram was now active, making entry into the Council Chamber at Shamballa possible. When the Christ achieved this, He was deemed worthy of embodying in Himself a new principle in evolution and of revealing to the world the nature of the second ray aspect—the divine principle of love (as humanity calls it) or of pure reason (as the Hierarchy calls it).

Since that time, all the seven major Ashrams have been fully organised and are steadily increasing in radiatory activity. As you will have noted, the order of their appearance—under ray activity—was 2, 7, 4, 6, 5, 3, 1. In giving this item of ashramic information I am giving you more hints than you will immediately realise.

Each Ashram, as you know, expresses ray quality in its purest and most essential form. During the process of creating the seven Ashrams, they have shifted their focus (or location) from the lowest of the three levels of the abstract mental plane at each major crisis, until today the Ashrams are to be found on the buddhic plane and not on the mental plane at all. This marks the triumph of the hierarchical work, because pure reason—through the second ray—is now the dominant quality in all the Ashrams. Forget not in this connection that all the rays are subrays of the second Ray of Love-Wisdom, but that in the early days of hierarchical activity, it was the particular quality of the ray which dominated an Ashram that first demonstrated, and not the quality of the great major ray of which they were all a part.

Today this is all changing, though the process is not yet perfected, and pure reason or true love is beginning to manifest itself through the quality of all the rays, functioning through their respective Ashrams. The secondary ray quality will not die out or in any way be lessened, but each ray quality will serve to implement the expression of pure love, which is the essential and—at this time—the primary quality of the Lord of the World, Sanat Kumara.

As the centuries have slipped away and the potency of the rays has increased on Earth, humanity has become more and more invocative; this has necessitated the expansion of the Hierarchy itself, and each Ashram has become the creator of six other Ashrams (few of them as yet complete, and some entirely embryonic), so that, in fact, all the forty-nine Ashrams are in the making. The second ray, for instance, has five affiliated Ashrams and one of which only the nucleus exists, and all these are working under its inspiration and through the effect of the second ray central fire. All have at their centre a second ray disciple. The third ray has already two subsidiary Ashrams; the sixth has four, and so on. The first ray is the only one at this time with no subsidiary fully functioning Ashram, and this because the will aspect is as yet very little understood and few initiates can meet the requirements of the first ray initiation. This is no reflection upon humanity. It is a question of divine timing and expediency, and Shamballa is not yet prepared for an influx of first ray initiates. Ages must pass before this Will aspect will have reached the stage of unfoldment and expression on the physical plane and through the medium of mankind which will warrant the fusing of six first ray fires—the purest fires there are.

If you will add all the above information as a background to what you know about ashramic work today, you will have a more complete picture of evocative and spiritual reality. You know much (for I have told you much) anent the Ashrams open today and the requirements for acceptance. It is essential that the uniqueness of the initiatory process be discounted. Down the ages men have achieved, are achieving and will achieve. The only difference is that—as the intellect of man develops—the requirements for initiation become more drastic and exacting, and the initiate therefore becomes of a distinctly higher order. The Master today is infinitely wiser and more full of love and more "occultly reasonable" than was the Master in Atlantean times. This in itself constitutes a reasonable fact, does it not, my brothers?

In considering the work carried forward in the Ashram as it affects the Masters Themselves, two ideas automatically emerge:

1. The Masters are also subject to limitation. The general idea of all aspirants is that They represent Those Who leave achieved freedom, have been liberated, and are therefore held by no limiting circumstances whatsoever. This is not true, though—speaking relatively, or so far as humanity is concerned—it is a fact that the limitations by which They were held as human beings are no longer present. But one achieved freedom only opens the door to another and wider freedom on ahead, and the ring-pass-not of our planetary Life in itself constitutes a powerful limitation. Speaking symbolically, somewhere in that great dividing wall of our planetary circumference, the Master must find an exit and discover a door which will permit Him to enter the Way of the Higher Evolution in its more cosmic stages. This Way leads Them in awareness and consciousness and experience into that "life more abundantly" of which Christ spoke; the origin and source of this more abundant life is to be found on cosmic levels, and not on the levels of the cosmic physical plane to which humanity and the Masters have hitherto been confined.

2. I am dealing with states of awareness and with experiences and spiritual undertakings which lie outside my own personal realisation. But in spite of this truth, just as you in the position of aspirants and disciples know much about the Hierarchy, its life, aims and conditioning rules, so do I, a Master of the fifth degree, know much concerning what lies ahead of me; I can therefore endeavour to make some small part of these essential truths clearer to those who can profit by them.  Such people will necessarily be initiated disciples.

Years ago (in 1922) when I gave the names of the seven Paths along one of which a Master must go (Initiation, Human and Solar), it was felt by Those for Whom I was working that humanity was not ready for the information which I now propose to give. I would here remind you that I have ever stated that even the Hierarchy does not know exactly how humanity will react or what progress they will make within a given time. Since I gave the earlier exoteric information, the world war took place, the forces of hidden evil emerged for a short period and were then routed, and humanity has awakened to truer values and spiritual perception to a totally unexpected extent. Men have been so aroused by the past agony that never again will they fall asleep; they may move slowly but they are, for the first time on a large scale, really thinking and visioning. For this reason, it is now possible to give out teaching hitherto regarded as too advanced. There are those alive today who will understand; there are those coming into incarnation during the next fifty years whose feet are already set upon this Higher Way, and it is for them I write.

(Please see the original book “The Rays and the Initiations” for information on the Higher Way.)

THE DUAL LIFE OF THE INITIATORY PROCESS

In all the many books which I have written, I have said relatively little about the brain and its relation to the personality and the soul. It is not possible to enlarge at any length on that theme here, but I will make certain statements without which this whole process of dual living would be most difficult to explain. I will sum up what I have to say in the form of three basic statements:

1. The brain is a most delicate receiving and transmitting apparatus:

1. It is responsive to information relayed to it, via the senses, from the emotional plane and the mind.

2. Through its medium the personal lower self becomes aware of its environment, of the nature of its desires, and of its mental peculiarities, as well as of the emotional states and the thoughts of the people contacted in the environment.

2. The brain is largely conditioned by the endocrine system, and this far more than the endocrinologists would care to admit:

1. It is powerfully conditioned by three major glands which are found in close relation to the brain substance. These are the pituitary body, the pineal gland and the carotid gland.

2. These form a triangle, practically unrelated in primitive man, occasionally related in average man, and closely related in the spiritual man.

3. These glands are objective correspondences of the three energy centres, by means of which the soul, or the indwelling spiritual man, controls his physical vehicle.

4. Where the relation is close between the three glands—as is increasingly the case where disciples are concerned—a triangle of circulating energies is always established.

5. This triangle, through the carotid gland in the medulla oblongata, becomes related to other glands and centres.

3. The brain, as transmitter, becomes a powerful directing agency:

1. As a recipient and transmitter of pure energy or life it uses the carotid gland controlled by the alta major centre, and establishes a close relation with the heart and the heart centre.

2. As a recipient of mental energy or of energy from the soul, the ajna centre becomes the directing agency; this is the centre which controls the pituitary body.

3. These energies are received via the head centre, which controls the pineal gland. Emotional energy enters the personality system via the solar plexus centre, where it either controls or is transmuted and elevated.

It is this triple mechanism in the head—both objective and subjective—which uses the physical brain as a receiving agent and as a transmitting agent. It is this which is brought into creative activity and thus under the control of the disciple in training or in process of being prepared for initiation. I have not hitherto emphasised this, nor do I wish to do so, for it is not desirable for the disciple or aspirant consciously and deliberately to deal with the mechanism in the head. Let him learn to control and consciously employ the mind; let him train his mind to receive communications from three sources:

1. The three worlds of ordinary living, thus enabling the mind to act as the "common-sense."

2. The soul, and thus consciously become the disciple, the worker in an Ashram, illumined by the wisdom of the soul, and superseding gradually the knowledge gained in the three worlds. That knowledge, rightly applied, becomes wisdom.

3. The Spiritual Triad, acting as the intermediary between the Monad and the brain of the personality. This can eventually take place, because the soul and personality are fused and blended into one functioning unit, this superseding again what we mean when we use the erroneous phrase "the soul." Duality then takes the place of the original triplicity.

It has been necessary to make these somewhat elementary remarks and to clarify these points, if there is to be true understanding as to what constitutes the dual life of the disciple or the Master, and wherein they differ.

One of the tests of the initiatory process is a hitherto totally unexpected one. Tests which are expected and for which preparation has been made do not constitute true tests in the real sense of the word, esoterically understood. It is a test—imposed with increasing rigidity as initiation after initiation is taken—to see just how far the initiate is capable of retaining or preserving in his brain consciousness the registered facts of several worlds or planes of consciousness; i.e., the three worlds of human endeavour and the world of soul consciousness, or both of these and the world of the Ashram; or again these and the activity of the Hierarchy itself, viewing it as a complete whole; or again, of all these and the world of Triadal experience, until the point is reached where a straight continuity of consciousness can be registered and held which comes directly from the Council Chamber of the Lord of the World to Those Masters Who are functioning in a physical body and must therefore use a physical brain. In every single case the test (in order to be passed correctly) must involve the brain consciousness; the facts, registered upon the subtler planes, must be correctly registered, recognised and interpreted simultaneously upon the physical plane.

You can see for yourselves that this is a major and most necessary indication of a developing awareness; a Master has to be aware at any time on any plane and at will. It will also be obvious to you that this will be a growing and an increasing perception for which the intermediate stages, between initiations, prepare the initiate. Gradually, each one of the five senses, plus the common-sense (the mind), has to demonstrate the effectiveness of its higher correspondence and thus of a developing subtle apparatus. Through this apparatus the initiate is put in touch with widening areas of the divine "state of mind" or with the planetary consciousness, until "the mind that is in Christ" becomes truly the mind of the initiate, with all that those words entail of meaning and esoteric significance.

Consciousness, Sensitivity, Awareness, Planetary Rapport, Universal Consciousness—these are the words which we must consider, sequentially developed and in their truly esoteric sense.

You have here a wide and general picture, involving the goal, the means or mode, the testing point and the physical brain; these are four factors which have received little or no attention where initiation has been dealt with in the occult writings. They are nevertheless of major importance. I am dealing with them here because of the stage of development now reached by the human mind, because of their increasingly close relation to the physical brain, and because there are now so many aspirants ready to tread the Path of Discipleship, the Path of Initiatory Training. They are now in a position to work consciously at the task of a dual and constant process of spiritual and physical recognitions.

The Dual Life of the Disciple

I have divided this theme into two parts, owing to the fact that the dualism displayed by a Master and that demonstrated by a disciple are not identical or one and the same thing at advancing points of distinction. The subject, when you first approach it, seems of a relative simplicity, but a closer consideration of it will present great and unexpected dissimilarities.

In connection with the dual life of the disciple, the factors involved are the threefold personality (with an awakening or onlooking consciousness centred or focussed in the brain), the soul which seems at first the ultimate goal of attainment but is later seen as simply a system or collection of fusing spiritual attributes, and the lowest aspect of the Spiritual Triad, the abstract mind. The disciple feels that, if he can attain the immediate and fused consciousness of the three, he has attained; he realises also that this involves the construction of the antahkarana. All these factors, for one who has just been admitted to the Path of Discipleship and who is just finding his place within an Ashram, seem an adequately difficult undertaking and one that engrosses every power which he possesses.

This, for the time being, is true and—until the third initiation—these objectives, their conscious fusion, plus a recognition of the divine planes of awareness to which they all admit him, indicate the disciple's task and keep him fully occupied. To the recognitions entailed he has to add a growing capacity to work on the levels of consciousness involved, remembering always that a plane and a state of consciousness are synonymous terms, and that he is making progress, becoming aware, building the antahkarana, training as a hierarchical worker within an Ashram, familiarising himself with new and opening spiritual environments, widening his horizon, stabilising himself upon the Path, and living upon the physical plane the life of an intelligent man within the world of men. He is demonstrating also no freakish peculiarities, but appears as a man of goodwill, of benevolent intelligence, of unalterable goodness, and of stern and unchangeable spiritual purpose. Is that enough of a goal for a disciple? Does it seem well-nigh impossible of accomplishment? Can you undertake such a proposition and make good your undertaking?

Most assuredly you can, for the factor of time enters in and the disciple is free to submit to its conditioning, particularly in the early stages of his discipleship; this he usually does at first, knowing nothing else to do, but the speed or the sattvic or rhythmic nature of the spiritual life eventually changes this attitude; he then works with no true consciousness of time except as it affects other people and his associates upon the physical plane.

At first, his registration of that which is sensed or seen upon the subtler planes or the soul plane is slow; it takes time for contacts and for knowledge gained to penetrate from the higher levels to his physical brain. This fact (when he discovers it) tends to upset his time-awareness, and the first step is therefore taken on the path of timelessness, speaking symbolically. He gains also the capacity to work with greater rapidity and mental coordination than does the average intelligent man; in this way he learns the limitations of time as a brain condition, and learns also how to offset it and to work in such a way that he does more within a set time limit than is possible to the average man, no matter how ardently he may pursue the effort. The overcoming of time and the demonstration of spiritual speed are indications that the dual life of discipleship is superseding the integrated life of the personality, though leading in its turn to a still greater synthesis and higher integration.

The dual life which all disciples lead produces also a rapidity of mental interpretation which is essential to the sane registration of the phenomenal life of the various higher planes and states of consciousness. Forget not that all our planes are subplanes of the cosmic physical plane, and are therefore phenomenal in nature. As they are contacted and recorded and the knowledge is transmitted to the physical brain, via the mind, there must always accompany them a true interpretation and a correct recognition of "things as they are." It is here that the non-disciple and the psychic go wrong, for their interpretation is almost always fundamentally in error, and it takes time (coming within that cycle of limitation) intelligently to interpret and truly register what the perceiving consciousness has contacted. When the time factor no longer controls, the interpretations registered by the brain are infallibly correct. I have here given you a major piece of information.

You will see, therefore, that in the earlier initiatory process, the factor of time is noted by the initiate and also by the presenting Masters. An instance of a slow permeation of information from the plane of initiation to the physical brain can be seen in the fact that very few aspirants and disciples register the fact that they have already taken the first initiation, the birth of the Christ in the cave of the heart. That they have taken it is evidenced by their deliberate treading of the Way, by their love of the Christ—no matter by what name they may call Him—and by their effort to serve and help their fellowmen; they are still, however, surprised when told that the first initiation lies behind them. This is due entirely to the factor of time, leading to their inability to "bring through" past events with accuracy, by a false humility as well (inculcated by the Christian Church, as it attempts to keep people subjugated by the sin idea), and by the intensely forward-looking anticipatory consciousness of the average aspirant. When a true perspective and a balanced point of view have been attained, and some awareness of the Eternal Now is beginning to penetrate into their understanding, then the past, the present and the future will be lost to sight in the consciousness of the inclusiveness of the moment that IS; then the limitations of time will be ending and the Law of Karma will be negated; it is at present so closely related to past and future. The dual life of the disciple will then be ended, giving place to the cosmic dualism of the Master.  The Master is free from the limitations of time, though not of space, because space is an eternal Entity.

You will see, therefore, the great necessity for a constant emphasis, at this stage in the training of the average aspirant, on the need for alignment, or for the creation of a channel of direct relation from the brain to the desired point of contact.  To this trained alignment must eventually be added the building of the antahkarana and its subsequent use in a growing system of alignments. The antahkarana must be completed and direct contact must be established with the Spiritual Triad by the time the third initiation has been taken. Then follows the fourth initiation with its destruction of the egoic, causal or soul body, owing to the complete fusion of soul and personality. The dual life of the disciple ends.

The Dual Existence of the Master

I would have you note here the difference between the two headings. I refer in one place to the dual life of the disciple but in another to the dual existence of the Master. That distinction is deliberate and intentional. The disciple lives in the three worlds and, until the third initiation, he demonstrates his livingness strictly in relation to the soul and the personality, and therefore strictly to the phenomenal world and to the various levels of the dense cosmic physical plane.

The Master functions on the plane of BEING and demonstrates the fact that He eternally IS, that He exists as a divine aspect upon the formless levels of the cosmic etheric planes; this is a very different matter to the life of the disciple and to which little attention has been paid. Existence, Being, Essential Life, Dynamic Energy, electric Fire are all of them distinctive of the higher initiations; they produce basic distinctions between their constitution and mode of life expression and that of those who live, who are in process of becoming, who express quality, and who fuse and blend solar fire and fire by friction. Being and Existence are not the same as Becoming or of Qualified Appearance. It is largely a question of emphases. A Master has synthesised within Himself all for which the advancing disciple longs to express, all that is possible as Expansion, plus an emphasis upon the dynamic life aspect, plus an ability to stand immovable in pure Being. Here again I find it hard to express that for which no words are to be found.

In the Master, all the divine aspects are proved capable of expression in accordance with this particular time, in this particular round and chain (reverting to the old symbolism of The Secret Doctrine) and through any particular racial expression. These divine characteristics—viewed from the angle of time and space—are shewn in a definitely relative form; later cycles and time periods will show these aspects in a still more perfected form. But the relativity of these matters does not really concern us, and the perfection is—from the angle of the human disciple today—exactly what we understand by perfection.

The Masters know, however, that a higher, deeper and more intensive manifestation of divinity is potentially possible, but it causes Them no concern or strain, no anxiety or fiery aspiration; They know, as no disciple can know, the workings of the Law of Inevitability. This Law releases the Masters (under the accompanying Law of Service), at the sixth initiation, into a wider field of experience, with all the divine assets and qualities so developed within Them that They know that Their equipment is adequate to the undertaking and that They can, without hesitancy and concern, take the next required steps.

It is hard for the disciple—struggling with glamour and illusion—to realise that the higher initiations are free from all concern and from any emotional or self-centred reactions to the work which lies ahead or to the form side of manifestation; it is well-nigh impossible for the neophyte to vision a time when he will be free from all reactions engendered by life on the dense cosmic physical planes and from all the limitations of life in the three worlds. Today, aspiration provides a constant source of anxious questioning, of painful deliberations and of high voltage spiritual ambition, with their consequent limitations and moments of sensed failure and lack of achievement. The Master has left all this behind, knowing that even this so-called "spiritual responsiveness" is a form of self-centred attitude.

Eventually—and disciples should take courage and hope from this statement—all this agonising reaction to the spiritual urge will be left behind. The Master knows the Law and is entirely free from any consideration of the time equation, as far as He Himself is concerned. He only regards time as it may affect the working of the Plan in the three worlds.

The dual existence of the Master involves what we might call the two poles: that of the monadic consciousness, whatever that may be, and that of the self-created form which He may use as a member of the Hierarchy and a worker in the three worlds of human enterprise. I would here remind you that there are many groups and types of Masters, and most of Them are quite unknown to occult students either from Their work or from rumour or from knowledge of the many evolutionary processes of which the human is only one. Not all the Masters work in the three worlds; not all the Masters need or possess physical bodies; not all the Masters "have Their faces turned towards the realm of dark light, but many face for aeons towards the clear cold light of spiritual existence"; not all the Masters make or are required to make the sacrifices which work for the fourth kingdom in nature entails.

Not all souls liberated or limited constitute the Kingdom of God in the sense which that phrase conveys to us; that term is limited to the soul which informs units in the human family; not all the Masters work under the great Buddha of Activity Who is responsible to Sanat Kumara for the Plan working out in connection with Humanity. He works through the three Great Lords of the Eternal Ashram of Sanat Kumara, but His two Brothers have Each of Them an equally important work and are responsible—as He is—to the Council Chamber. Each of Them also works through a triangle of energies with grouped subsidiary forces working in seven departments and differentiated also into forty-nine lesser departments, as is the Ashram which we call the Hierarchy. Forget not, there are many Hierarchies and the Human Hierarchy is but one.

This whole theme is one of great complexity and yet at the same time so simple that when the simplicity of the planetary constitution is truly grasped and the analytic disputations of the concrete mind are overcome, the liberated Master enters a world of spiritual endeavour which is free from forms and symbols or the veils which hide the basic truth and the underlying mystery.

Being is simple, free, unlimited and unimpeded and in that world the Master moves and works. Becoming is complex, imprisoning, limited and subjected to hindrances, and in that world the disciple and the lesser initiates live and move and have their being. The Master works simultaneously in two worlds or states of awareness; i.e., that related to pure existence, to the untrammelled life of the planes controlled by the Monad, and also by the Hierarchy. There naught but the Plan engrosses His attention. He deals safely with "the simplicity which is Shamballa" and its sphere or aura of influence and "with the field of relationships which are nurtured from the Ashram of the Christ." I am here quoting one of the Masters Who was endeavouring to explain to a disciple the simplicity of the life which a Master expresses.

The Science of the Antahkarana

As we enter on the consideration of "The dual life of the initiatory process" I would call your attention to the wording used, and particularly to its significance in reference to the initiatory process. This deals, as we shall see, not with the effort of the disciple to live simultaneously the life of the spiritual world and the practical life of physical plane service, but entirely with the preparation of the disciple for initiation, and therefore with his mental life and attitudes.

This statement might be regarded as concerning itself primarily with two major aspects of his mental life and not with the life of relation between soul and personality. It is proper, consequently, to see a duality existing in the consciousness of the disciple, and both of its aspects existing side by side:

1. The life of awareness in which he expresses the soul attitude, soul awareness and soul consciousness, through the medium of the personality upon the physical plane; this he learns to register and express consciously.

2. The intensely private and purely subjective life in which he—the soul-infused personality—oriented upon the mental plane, brings into increasing rapport:

1. His lower concrete mind and the higher abstract mind.

2. Himself and the Master of his ray group, thus developing the ashramic consciousness.

3. Himself and the Hierarchy as a whole, becoming increasingly aware of the spiritual synthesis underlying the united Ashrams. He thus consciously and steadily approaches the radiant Centre of this solar Ashram, the Christ Himself, the first Initiator.

This inner life with its three slowly revealed objectives concerns essentially the life of preparation for initiation.

There is no initiation for the disciple until he has begun consciously to build the antahkarana, thus bringing the Spiritual Triad and the mind as the highest aspect in the three worlds into a close relationship; later, he brings his physical brain into a position of a recording agent upon the physical plane, thus again demonstrating a clear alignment and a direct channel from the Spiritual Triad straight through to the brain via the antahkarana which has linked the higher mind and the lower.

This involves much work, much interpretive capacity and much power to visualise. I am choosing my words with care. This visualisation is not necessarily concerned with form and with concrete mental presentations; it is concerned with a pictorial and symbolic sensitivity which expresses interpretively the spiritual understanding, conveyed by the awakening intuition—the agent of the Spiritual Triad. The meaning of this becomes clearer as the work proceeds. It is difficult for the man who is beginning the work of constructing the antahkarana to grasp the meaning of visualisation as it is seen to be related to a growing responsiveness to that which the ashramic group conveys to him, to his emerging vision of the divine Plan as it exists in reality, and to that which is committed to him as the effect or the result of each successive initiation. I prefer the word "effect" to the word "result," for the initiate increasingly works consciously with the Law of Cause and Effect on planes other than the physical. We use the word "result" to express the consequences of that great cosmic Law as they demonstrate in the three worlds of human evolution.

It is in connection with this effort that he discovers the value, uses and purpose of the creative imagination. This creative imagination is all that remains to him eventually of the active and intensely powerful astral life which he has lived for so many lives; as evolution proceeds, his astral body becomes a mechanism of transformation, desire being transformed into aspiration and aspiration itself being transformed into a growing and expressive intuitive faculty.

The reality of this process is demonstrated in the emergence of that basic quality which has always been inherent in desire itself: the imaginative quality of the soul, implementing desire and steadily becoming a higher creative faculty as desire shifts into ever higher states and leads to ever higher realisations. This faculty eventually invokes the energies of the mind, and the mind, plus the imagination, becomes in time a great invocative and creative agent. It is thus that the Spiritual Triad is brought into rapport with the threefold personality.

I have told you in earlier writings that basically the astral plane is non-existent as a part of the divine Plan; it is fundamentally the product of glamour, of kama-manas—a glamour which humanity itself has created and in which it has lived practically entirely since early Atlantean days. The effect of an increasing soul contact has not simply been to dispel the mists of glamour, but it has also served to consolidate and to bring into effective use, therefore, the imagination with its overwhelmingly powerful creative faculty. This creative energy, when implemented by an illumined mind (with its thoughtform making ability), is then wielded by the disciple in order to make contacts higher than with the soul, and to bring into symbolic form that of which he becomes aware through the medium of a line of energy— the antahkarana—which he is steadily and scientifically creating.

It might be said (equally symbolically) that at each initiation he tests the connecting bridge and discovers gradually the soundness of that which he has created under the inspiration of the Spiritual Triad and with the aid of the three aspects of his mind (the abstract mind, the soul or the Son of Mind, and the lower concrete mind), combined with the intelligent cooperation of his soul-infused personality. In the early stages of his invocative work, the instrument used is the creative imagination. This enables him at the very beginning to act as if he were capable of thus creating; then, when the as if imaginative consciousness is no longer useful, he becomes consciously aware of that which he has— with hope and spiritual expectancy—sought to create; he discovers this as an existent fact and knows past all controversy that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Building the Antahkarana

With the introductory teaching on the science of the Antahkarana we shall not here deal, for the student will find it in the book, Education in the New Age. That preliminary presentation should be studied before taking up the more advanced stage which begins here. Let us now consider, step by step this science which is already proving a useful source of experiment and testing.

The human soul (in contradistinction to the soul as it functions in its own kingdom, free from the limitations of human life) is imprisoned and subject to the control of the lower three energies for the major part of its experience. Then, upon the Path of Probation, the dual energy of soul begins to be increasingly active, and the man seeks to use his mind consciously, and to express love-wisdom on the physical plane. This is a simple statement of the objective of all aspirants. When the five energies are beginning to be used, consciously and wisely in service, a rhythm is then set up between the Personality and the Soul. It is as if a magnetic field were then established and these two vibrating and magnetic units, or grouped energies, swung into each other's field of influence. This happens only occasionally and rarely in the early stages; later it occurs more constantly, and thus a path of contact is established which eventually becomes the line of least resistance, "the way of familiar approach," as it is sometimes called. Thus is the first half of the "bridge," the antahkarana, constructed. By the time the third initiation is completed, this Way is completed, and the initiate can "pass to higher worlds at will, leaving the lower worlds far behind; or he can come again and pass upon the way that leads from dark to light, from light to dark, and from the under lower worlds into the realms of light."

Thus the two are one, and the first great union upon the Path of Return is completed. A second stage of the Way has then to be trodden, leading to a second union of still further importance in that it leads to complete liberation from the three worlds.  

It must be remembered that the soul, in its turn, is a union of three energies of which the lower three are the reflection. It is a synthesis of the energy of Life itself (which demonstrates as the life-principle within the world of forms), of the energy of the intuition or spiritual love-wisdom or understanding (this demonstrates as sensitivity and feeling in the astral body), and spiritual mind, whose reflection in the lower nature is the mind or the principle of intelligence in the form world. In these three we have the atma-buddhi-manas of the theosophical literature—that higher triplicity which is reflected in the lower three, and which focusses through the soul body on the higher levels of the mental plane before being precipitated into incarnation—as it is esoterically called.

Modernising the concept, we might say that the energies which animate the physical body and the intelligent life of the atom, the sensitive emotional states, and the intelligent mind, have eventually to be blended with and transmuted into the energies which animate the soul. These are the spiritual mind, conveying illumination; the intuitive nature, conferring spiritual perception; and divine livingness.

After the third initiation the "Way" is carried forward with great rapidity, and the "bridge" is finished which links perfectly the higher spiritual Triad and the lower material reflection. The three worlds of the Soul and the three worlds of the Personality become one world wherein the initiate works and functions, seeing no distinction, regarding one world as the world of inspiration and the other world as constituting the field of service, yet regarding both together as forming one world of activity. Of these two worlds, the subjective etheric body (or the body of vital inspiration) and the dense physical body are symbols on the external plane.

How is this bridging antahkarana to be built? Where are the steps which the disciple must follow? I deal not here with the Path of Probation whereon the major faults should be eliminated and whereon the major virtues should be developed. Much of the instruction given in the past has laid down the rules for the cultivation of the virtues and qualifications for discipleship, and also the necessity for self-control, for tolerance and for unselfishness. But these are elementary stages and should be taken forgranted by the students. Such students should be occupied not only with the establishment of the character aspect of discipleship, but with the more abstruse and difficult requirements for those whose eventual goal is initiation.

It is with the work of the "bridge-builders" that we are concerned. First, let me assure you that the real building of the antahkarana takes place only when the disciple is beginning to be definitely focussed upon mental levels, and when therefore his mind is intelligently and consciously functioning. He must begin at this stage to have some more exact idea than has hitherto been the case as to the distinctions existing between the thinker, the apparatus of thought, and thought itself, beginning with its dual esoteric function which is:

1. The recognition and receptivity to Ideas.

2. The creative faculty of conscious thoughtform building.

This necessarily involves a strong mental attitude and reorientation of the mind to reality. As the disciple begins to focus himself on the mental plane (and this is the prime intent of the meditation work), he starts working in mental matter and trains himself in the powers and uses of thought. He achieves a measure of mind control; he can turn the searchlight of the mind in two directions, into the world of human endeavour and into the world of soul activity. Just as the soul makes a way for itself by projecting itself in a thread or stream of energy into the three worlds, so the disciple begins consciously to project himself into the higher worlds.  His energy goes forth, through the medium of the controlled and directed mind, into the world of the higher spiritual mind and into the realm of the intuition. A reciprocal activity is thus set up. This response between the higher and the lower mind is symbolically spoken of in terms of light, and the "lighted way" comes into being between the personality and the spiritual Triad, via the soul body, just as the soul came into definite contact with the brain via the mind.

This "lighted way" is the illumined bridge. It is built through meditation; it is constructed through the constant effort to draw forth the intuition, through subservience and obedience to the Plan (which begins to be recognised as soon as the intuition and the mind are en rapport), and through a conscious incorporation into the group in service and for purposes of assimilation into the whole. All these qualities and activities are based upon the foundation of good character and the qualities developed upon the Probationary Path.

The effort to draw forth the intuition requires directed occult (but not aspirational) meditation. It requires a trained intelligence, so that the line of demarcation between intuitive realisation and the forms of the higher psychism may be clearly seen. It requires a constant disciplining of the mind, so that it can "hold itself steady in the light," and the development of a cultured right interpretation, so that the intuitive knowledge achieved may then clothe itself in the right thoughtforms.